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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



































JESUS BEFORE PILATE 

A MONOGRAPH OF THE CRUCIFIXION 

INCLUDING THE 

REPORTS, LETTERS AND ACTS 

OF 

PONTIUS PILATE 


CONCERNING 

THE TRIAL AND CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS OF NAZARETH- 

TRANSLATED FROM TISCHENDORF’S AND OTHER MANUSCRIPTS. 


“Art Thou the King of the Jews?” 


EMBRACING SKETCHES OF JESUS, TIBERIUS C/tSAR, PONTIUS 
PILATE AND THE HIGH PRIESTS, ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS: 


WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 

W.X>. v CLOUGH, B. A. 


ILLUSTRATED 


u; 


ROBERT DOUGLASS 

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 
1891 



26 3/£ W ; 

'to- 






3/^-4/ 

.ArCca 

IM 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1SS3, by 


W- O- CLOUGH, 


In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
Copyright assigned to Robert Douglass April 2d, 1SS3. 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by 

ROBERT DOUGLASS, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 














GENERAL CONTENTS 


Frontispiece 

Prefatory Notice ... 

Introductory . 

Jesus Crucified .... 

The Acts of Pilate .... 
Tischendorf’s Comments on 
Death Warrant of Jesus 
Report of Pilate (Vatican Ms.) 

Report of Pilate (TischendorPs Ms.) 
Report of Pilate (TischendorPs Ms.) 
Letter, of, to Roman Emperor 
Letter to Claudius Caesar 
Sketch of Tiberius C/esar 
Sketch of Pontius Pilate 
Sketch of Annas and Caiaphas 
Testimony of Early Christian Fathers 
Lardner’s Remarks . . 

Sketch of Justin .... 
Sketch of Tertullian 
Sketch of Eusebius 
Sketch of Tischendorf 

Summary . 

Index 


iii-iv 
v-xiv 
i-3 2 
33-134 
I35-H7 
148-149 
150-174 
I75-I79 
180-183 
184-185 
186-187 
188-248 
249-261 
262-282 
283-292 
293-311 

312-317 

318-322 

323-327 

328-336 

337-36i 

362-372 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


i. 

Christ Before Pilate, - - Frontispiece^ 

(The original by M. de Munkacsy.) 

II. 

PAGE, 

Christ— From 44 Christ Before Pilate.” - i 

(Original by M. de Munkacsy.) 

III 

Christ on Calvary. - - - - 37 

(Original by M. de Munkacsy.) 

IV 

The three Marys— From “Christ on Cal¬ 


vary.” - 97 

(Original by M. de Munkacsy.) 

V 

Tiberius Cvesar. - - - - - 188 

(From Statue now in the Vatican, Rome.) 

VI 

Pontius Pilate— From “Christ before Pil¬ 
ate” ------- 249 

(Original by M. de Munkacsy.) 

VII 

Caiaphas, the High Priest— From “Christ 

before Pilate.” - 262 

(Original by M. de Munkacsy.) 

VIII 

Pharisee —From “Christ before Pilate.” - 283 

(Original by M. de Munkacsy.) 



PREFATORY NOTICE 


The “Reports, Letters and Acts of Pilate” were 
first published by me in 1880 , which was their first 
publication in this country. 

A new edition, embracing a history of these old 
documents from A. d. 138 down to tne time of their 
discovery on 5 th century manuscripts by the emi¬ 
nent Tischendorf, was issued by me in 1883 . 

The last and third which is the one here oftered, 
combines all the matter of the former editions, 
greatly enhanced in value by still further additions 
of new matter explanatory and illustrative, and by 
notes embodying new facts brought to light by late 
historical research. 

The whole work has been carried forward by its 
first editor, whose labor in investigating the field 
of history in which it lies has been unremitting. 

The illustrations are taken, with one exception, 
from the celebrated paintings of M. de Munkacsy, 
the foremost artist of to-day and whose produc¬ 
tions in “Christ before Pilate” and “Christ on 
Calvary” both in European and American capi¬ 
tals have been hailed with an enthusiasm created 



IV 


PREFATORY NOTICE. 


by no similar productions since the times of Mich¬ 
ael Angelo. 

These great pictures are framed about with a 
history truly descriptive of their every detail in the 
Old Records that lie around them written out con¬ 
temporary with the deeds of the great drama they 
depict. 

Together they are here respectfully and rever¬ 
ently dedicated to the Christian world as a por¬ 
traiture of the central fact of human history —The 
Crucifixion of Jesus the Christ. 

July 10, 1891. Robert Douglass. 


INTRODUCTORY 


The main object of this volume is the presenta¬ 
tion of certain Ancient Documents descriptive of 
the trial and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, and 
which to a certain extent illustrate and supplement 
the history of his life as contained in our four 
Gospels. 

These Documents are taken from the most re¬ 
spectable sources of authority ; and in themselves 
carry a strong argument of being faithful delinea¬ 
tions of the events narrated. 

In their main expression it cannot be doubted 
that their details are reliable. 

They must have been drawn up very close to 
the real events which they picture ; and they give 
us much help in arriving at a more vivid concep¬ 
tion than could be arrived at without them. 

This being true, no apology is felt to be neces¬ 
sary for offering them as part of the history of 
that most remarkable life attributed to Jesus the 
Saviour. 

The editor and compiler feels that in offering 
these Documents therefore, that he is but adding to 
our knowledge that which shall further advance 



VI 


INTRODUCTORY. 


the history of a Person so little alluded to by co¬ 
temporary writers, whose writings lie outside our 
Sacred Records. 

The accepted history of the life of Jesus has 
been preserved to us in four little books called the 
Gospels—written respectively by Matthew, Mark, 
Luke and John—inside of the century in which 
He lived. 

Outside of these it has been generally believed 
by nearly all, that nothing has been left in the 
way of biographical record, save a mere mention 
by the Jewish historian Josephus, born about 37 a. 
d. and who died 100 a. d. and the Latin historian, 
Tacitus, born 56 a. d. and who died after a. d. 97. 
The writings of these two historians are the only 
records outside the New Testament that mention 
Jesus during the century.in which Relived. 

So has run modern thought as to the knowledge 
left us in history concerning Jesus. 

And yet it would seem strange that a man should 
have come so prominently before the people as a 
public teacher as to be tried and crucified for 
heresy and rebellion against the laws of a whole 
people and be publicly tried and executed under a 
Roman governor and yet no account be taken of 
it, and no record be made of it; especially so, un¬ 
der a government so strict as the Roman, and un¬ 
der an Emperoi - who kept his subordinate gover¬ 
nors in a very wholesome fear of vengeance if they 
dared oppress those beneath them , or encouraged 
irregularity of any kind. 

To crucify a public and well known teacher, 


INTRODUCTORY. 


Vll 

and one for whose popular teaching the Jewish 
Senate arraigned before Pilate under sentence of 
death for public law-breaking, and as an open and 
public offender, and not make a record of it was 
simply an impossibility under the Roman system. 

Either one fact or the other must be admitted 
here:—that Jesus was not crucified at all (in 
which case no record could be made of it) or that 
Pilate did make a report of it. We know from 
Tacitus that He was crucified and it follows that 
Pilate did record it—did report it , or else laid him¬ 
self liable to the vengeance of Tiberius. This 
under the circumstances Pilate would not have 
done. 

It was an important and an imperative duty 
which would cost him nothing to perform—but the 
omission of which might cost him his political 
head, and his citizenship by banishment. For 
Rome in his day had a “Siberia” terrible as that 
of Russia to-day, and was often made the sad 
home of political and official delinquency. If Pi¬ 
late made a record of that trial he did a duty to 
his emperor and government at Rome ; and a fa¬ 
vor to all history: if he did not make it, then in 
the light of history it is impossible to see how he 
escaped the penalty his omission incurred. 

The records of notable events are always valu- 
ble. Without them we should be completely at 
sea in knowing how the present state of things 
came to exist, and much more at a loss to tell what 
is like or possible in the future, whether in one de¬ 
partment of human interest or another. 


Vlll 


INTRODUCTORY. 


If we had no records of the life of Jesus, we 
should be unable to connect Him in any way with 
the great world we call Christendom. 

If we have only myths, then, certainly Christen¬ 
dom is founded on a basis not of real forces at 
work in humanity, but on shadows that sooner or 
later will fade—as light shall reveal the foundation 
of the baseless fabric. 

In this real world of ours men as they grow 
wiser cling to reality. For there is a divinity in 
that which stays and endures, that humanity loves 
to tie to. 

It loves not the evanescent, the ephemeral. 

There is no word that has so deep a root in 
man’s love of good as the double 4 Torever-and- 
forever.” 

Facts, real things, unending action, is what man 
believes to be and feels to be part of, and akin to, 
the great corner stone of Being and Life. 

This is altogether true of man’s religious nature. 

In that field he longs for fact—for reality—for 
that which cannot pass away—but abides forever. 
Hence enlightened men have long since thrown 
aside the mere myth and fable in Religion. 

The imaginary, the mere ideal are beautiful to 
them, ’tis true:—but the highest picture in Poesy 
or Painting must be drawn from the real and sub¬ 
stantial model of the living , or ’tis soon forgot as a 
shadow fading into formlessness. 

Reason, the handmaid of trne Religion, guides 
our Faith not to bow to the inconstant chimeras of 
Fancy; it asks our Faith to twine its arms around 


INTRODUCTORY. 


IX 


the altar-horns of Reality, and not to hug a phan¬ 
tom or myth , or revel in the flowery shadows of a 
baseless dream, however fascinating. 

Therefore it is that we have the word history, 
holding the first place in the great temple-home of 
the Past:—therefore ’twas that when God first 
wrote the Law, He wrote in stone that alphabet of 
the Moral code suited to the whole constitution of 
man in his conduct for all ages. Facts , then, first; 
and after them, their record—viz. hi.sto?'y. 

In any case such records are important: and in 
a case like that before us here, more important than 
is often appreciated, and that cannot be over-esti¬ 
mated. 

The value of History—the Record of the Past— 
is beyond estimation. Tablets, manuscripts, Icon- 
ographs, cut on stone, engraved on metal, im¬ 
pressed in clay, written on papyrus, and on skins 
of animals are preserved in all the great museums 
of the world with the greatest care for the simple 
reason of their great value to history. They form 
the only doorway and avenue to the great Realm 
of the mighty Past. 

Without them the by-gone of humanity would 
be forever closed. Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome 
and Palestine in their past without these old musty 
and curious relics would be a blank. 

These footsteps of the march of years are val¬ 
uable beyond all others for the reason that they 
come from the very times of the events. They are 
pictures from life, so to speak, and not fancy 
sketches or conjectures as to those events. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


Modern exploration and research have done 
much in unearthing these old leaves of history. 

In the department of Bible history so far as that 
history depends upon the oldest manuscript forms 
of the book, no name stands higher or prouder 
than Constantine Tischendorf s. 

His Sinai Copy of the Bible discovered in a 
Convent on that mountain some years ago—is kept 
as a sacred treasure in the imperial Capital of Rus¬ 
sia. In whatever belongs to a critical knowledge 
of the oldest form of our sacred writings no name 
is more honored than that of Tischendorf. 

The main contents of this volume offered here 
rest on manuscripts discovered by Tischendorf, that 
were copied from still older ones more than 1,350 
years ago. They are true copies of the Acts of 
Pilate cited, before the Roman Senate, in whose 
archives they were kept, as early as a. d. 138 by 
the learned Justin Martyr. 

They were in the Archives of Rome at that time. 

George Rawlinson the great historian, and au¬ 
thor of “The Ancient Monarchies” says that it 
is probable that copies of them were disseminated 
among the early Christians through the Christians 
that were members of Caesar’s household.* About 
170 years after Justin’s citation of these Acts of 
Pilate, they had gotten abroad among the Chris¬ 
tians : and their force felt to such a degree by the 
opponents of Christianity, that we find the Roman 
Emperor Maximin issuing a decree for their collec- 


*See Colossians, iv. 22. The historical evidences of the truth of 
the Scripture Records stated anew, with special reference to the 
doubts and discoveries of modern times. Lecture vii. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


XI 


lection and destruction—or worse, their mutila¬ 
tion.* 

These few facts concerning them are enough to 
establish the conclusion of their genuineness and 
authenticity as originating under the procurator- 
ship and sanction of Pilate himself, and as being 
records composed in the very face of the events 
they narrate. 

They show “the Acts of Pilate” to have been 
part of the coinage of history, struck then under 
his governorship in Judea, and passing as current 
then as passed in the days of Justin not as coun¬ 
terfeits, but with every mark of the mint of fact 
enstamped upon them—as did the coins of money 
bearing the image and superscription of Caesar— 
when shown to Jesus. 

Destructive Criticism has done its best under the 
Tubingen School to invalidate the historicalness 
of both Gospel and Apocrypha, and following in 
its wake, a horde of minor critics as well as a 
school of higher men have tried to destroy the 
personality of Abraham, of Moses, of David and 
of Jesus—nay following later, of the existence of 
Homer, and of Shakespeare alike. But a more 
conservative and reasonable and patient school has 
in the last few decades unearthed indisputable evi¬ 
dence to the contrary. We are standing again 
amidst the rums of these former men and things, 
and do handle the very armor of the real men that 
have been so cheaply counted myths, but the dis- 


*See Eusebius Eccl . Hist, book ix. chap. 5. 



INTRODUCTORY. 


xii 

covered remains of whom are to-day serving still 
as armor and shield for Truth. 

The story of Joseph in Egypt—among her Phar¬ 
aohs—grows more real as we unwrap the mummy 
bandages from the very kings under whom he 
served. 

The poet-history of the battles around old windy 
Troy painted three thousand years ago in the Iliad 
of Homer, king of all poets, rises like reality as 
we view the spade of Schlieman lifting the sand 
and mold buried three-foundations deep—off the 
skulls and shields of those ancient Captains of the 
Trojan war—and bearing up to light the buckler, 
shield and spear of men who perished ere H£neas 
sailed, or Virgil sang “Ilium’s lofty temples robed 
in fire.” We have a right to these. They but il 
luminate what was but an uncertain page. They 
make real to our sight again the heroes whose 
mighty example in peaceful glory, or mighty deeds 
of war, seemed too godlike to be true. 

And so in this whole field called Literature, called 
Poetry, called History. We want those older things 
—the true realities of what there truly was. Noth¬ 
ing can bring them here to us but the tablet, the 
iconograph, the old manuscript, the mummy wrap 
unearthed by the spade of patient investigation. 

How new these old things are from the fountain 
head. They refresh the spirit of Faith like goblets 
filled at the spring. 

The old documents that follow here are pre¬ 
sented in this mind and offered in this spirit. 

Some of their pictures are new to most of us. 


INTRODUCTORY. xiii 

The descriptions here and there, of the Saviour 
Himself as a person while here on earth, of the 
robe He wore—that spotless robe of white that 
Herod put on Him ; of the three Marys weeping 
where he hung on the tree : of the' shriek and wail 
of her whose mother-heart was sword-pierced by 
woe, and many other details, are notunworthy of 
his reading who would draw nearer to the Cross 
of Jesus. 

They are truly worthy of a place in Christian 
Literature, and as to truth, in the likeness of his 
life-history, they will not dim one star in the bright 
diadem He wears. They add no gloss, and lend 
no trace unwortlry of the tale we oft have heard— 
nor do they steal away a single ray where light 
shines through to break upon his Cross or Crown. 

These pictures from the Crucifixion, whether 
from history or legend, will serve to broaden the 
landscape that lies around the Cross that divides 
the Darkness from the Light; to heighten the great 
ideal of a Life glorified by purity, peace and love, 
and to fix the signet seal of His truth of whom 
’twas said, “He is the Light of the world.” 

Their argument is one addressed to the Heart, 
as well as to the Head, and ’twixt the two reason¬ 
ings let him who reads make choice. 

If the soul’s heart be greatest let it be—if the 
soul’s head be greatest let it be. But of the music 
made by either one—if but one, give us the music 
of the heart—that rising around the sea and in the 
dells of Galilee—dove-like fills alike the leafy nest 


XIV 


INTRODUCTORY. 


of spring no less than the leafless forest sear, with 
the soul of promise and of new life. 

Let the poet’s quill, the painter’s pencil touch 
each word He spake, each deed He did—no matter 
where—let Magdalen, or Lazarus, or Pilate with 
his Roman spear or soldier’s reed with hyssop 
speak—you cannot hide the Story there enacted. 

True souls will bleed at every pore the bloody 
sweat He felt, when bowed to bear the bruises of 
a broken heart, each man must feel some other 
where, when other years shall tell how well He 
bore Gethsemane, the Roman Cross and Soldier’s 
Spear—to come again crowned with blossoms from 
that other Sphere that has no death, nor change to 
fear. W. O. Clough. 

Indianapolis, July 10, 1891. 







I 








V 










% 

















» 






* 



























Hasselman Photo. Eng. 


The original by M. de Munkaesy. 


CHRIST 










JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


Dying—while those who loved Him, helplessly 
Gazing far-off, held from His bleeding feet 
By Pilate’s spears and guards of Caiaphas, 

And Roman Soldiers, casting lots to share 
Ilis sacred vestments. 

Sir Edwin Arnold. 

Crucifixion was an ancient Oriental mode of in¬ 
flicting the death-penalty applied in rare instances 
by the Greeks and more commonly by the Ro¬ 
mans ; by both Greeks and Romans considered an 
infamous form of death, and reserved in general 
for slaves and highway robbers. 

Among the Romans the instrument of death was 
properly either a cross in form now so familiar, or 
the cross known as St. Andrew’s , sometimes a 
standing tree was made to serve the purpose. 

The person was attached to the cross either by 
nails driven through the hands and feet or by 
cords, and was left to die of exhaustion or received 
the mercy of a quicker death according to circum¬ 
stances. 

The peculiar atrocity of crucifixion was that a 
man might live three or four days in this horrible 
condition upon the tree of anguish. The hemor¬ 
rhage of the hands very soon ceased and was not 
mortal. The true cause of death was the unnat- 


2 


jp:sus crucified. 


ural position of the body which induced a hideous 
disturbance of the circulation, fearful pains in the 
head and heart, and finally rigidity of the limbs. 
Men of strong constitutions died only of hunger. 

The principal idea of this cruel punishment was 
not to kill the criminal directly by absolute lesions, 
but to expose the victim nailed up by the hands of 
which he had not known how to make proper use 
—and let him slowly die on the tree. 

The delicate constitution of Jesus saved Him 
from this slow agony. Every thing leads to the 
belief that in His case death was produced by rup¬ 
ture of blood vessels after suffering three hours. 

The desolate knoll on which Jesus yielded up 
his life was the centre around which the fury of 
human rage, at intervals, had played for more 
than a thousand years. 

Death and bloodshed were not new to Calvary. 

For more than a thousand years to come they 
were still to hover about this ‘‘place of a skull”— 
and in that “field of blood,” purchased with the 
price of love’s betrayal, how many pilgrims were 
yet to be given a stranger’s burial! 

History has recorded no Heights more historic 
of Death than the Heights of Zion. Whoever has 
read the history of Jerusalem from the times of 
David down to the last Crusade, and of all Pales¬ 
tine from the times of Abraham, will remember 
that, for much of the time the Heights about Jeru¬ 
salem, and of all that land, have drunk much more 
blood than perhaps any other recorded fields of 
death. 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


3 


Here on this mount of paradox—sacred to prayer, 
devoted to blood, scarred by the ravages of 
ruthless wars—theatre of a thousand desolations, 
seemed a most fitting place for His cross who had 
come as the Prince of Peace. 

Drenched had it been not only with the sacrifi¬ 
cial blood of beasts, but with the gore of contend¬ 
ing legions from Egypt and Assyria—from Media 
and Rome and the uttermost parts of earth. 

Surely the “Mount of Conflict” had not been, 
and would not be a name unfitting to Mount Zion. 

Around her rocky dome has played the vortex 
of the wildest contention of passions. 

From the day that David stormed her strong cit¬ 
adel even down till now no capital has been more 
central of human conflict than the “City of David. ” 

No city we think has seen such extreme vicissi¬ 
tudes—and kept alive so long such intense interest 
in the hearts of men. Like that “sacred fire” on 
her altars—whether burning in the humble tent of 
skins or in the temple of her proudest kings—hu¬ 
manity’s interest in Mount Zion has never ceased 
to burn with a devotion and fervor most wonderful 
—whether in one age or another, and under what¬ 
ever change of circumstance. 

When Jesus came he saw Jerusalem bearing the 
civil yoke of pagan Rome and writhing under the 
seditions of a corrupted Jewish priesthood ; filled 
with political hate as well as political despair. 

Yet He had doubtless learned in boyhood, and 
knew in manhood, the glorious history of His 
people. 


4 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


He must have read of David and Solomon, of 
that Golden Age—when God Himself seemed to 
be king and guide in Israel. He must have com¬ 
pared those palmy days with the times in which 
He was then living—and the glory of Solomon so 
faded to the poverty of a broken foreign province. 

He must have read those glorious passages from 
the hand of His forefather David, the poet king, 
long ago descriptive of Zion :—“Beautiful for situa¬ 
tion, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on 
the sides of the north, the city of the great king. 
God is known in her palaces for refuge. Let 
Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be 
glad, because of thy judgments. Walk about 
Zion, and go around about her, tell the towers 
thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her 
palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generations fol¬ 
lowing.” Ps. xlviii. 

“The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all 
the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken 
of thee, O city of God. Selah. Of Zion it shall be 
said, this and that man was born in her. The Lord 
shall count when He writeth up the people that this 
man was born there.” Ps. lxxxvii. The sparrow 
hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for her¬ 
self where she may lay her young, even thine altars 
O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God. They go 
from strength to strength ; every one of them in 
Zion appeareth before God. A day in thy courts 
is better than a thousand. I had rather be a door¬ 
keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the 
tents of wickedness.” Ps. lxxxiv. 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


5 


With what feelings of sadness he must have read 
that other psalm of David so descriptive of Jerusa¬ 
lem under the sway of the Caesars:—“O God, the 
heathen are come into thine inheritance ; thy holy 
temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem 
in heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have 
they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, 
the flesh .of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. 
Their blood have they shed like water round about 
Jerusalem ; and there was none to bury them. Ps. 
Ixxiv. 

How like a fulfilled prophecy this psalm must 
have read to Jesus ; how sadly real of his country, 
of its capital and of His people in the days of His 
own time! 

Jerusalem did not reach her highest glory, how¬ 
ever under David. 

Jesus must have read more tearfully of her golden 
age under Solomon, the son of king David ; when 
the Lord “had given rest on every side,” so that 
there was neither adversary nor evil occurrent, 
(1 Kings v, 4 ;) and of that golden house whose 
“stones made ready before they were brought 
thither, echoed neither hammer nor ax, nor gave 
sound of tool of iron” in all its building. 

He must have read and remembered the dedica¬ 
tion of that house ; and that wonderful prayer of 
Solomon, whose eloquence in speech and concep¬ 
tion echoes still a rival of the finest ancient or mod¬ 
ern oratorios. 

Above all Jesus must have recalled with deepest 
pathos, after that prayer, that “God appeared unto 


6 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


Solomon the second time, as He had appeared unto 
him at Gibeon,” and said: “I have heard thy 
prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made 
before me : I have hallowed this house, which thou 
hast built, to put my name there forever; and mine 
eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. 

And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy 
father walked, in integrity of heart, and in upright¬ 
ness, to do all that I have commanded thee, and 
will keep my statutes and my judgments ; then will 
I establish the throne of thy kingdom forever, as I 
promised to David thy father, saying, “there shall 
not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.” 

I Kings ix, 2-5. 

It must have crucified the heart of Jesus to read 
of these glories of Israel and her temple under Sol¬ 
omon ; and then turn to contemplate her state as He 
saw it under Rome—even under Pilate—and Caesar 
holding the pagan sword over Jerusalem. 

We must not forget that Jesus was a Jew. We 
must never forget that love of country so deeply 
rooted in the heart of the Jew as could pour forth in 
exile a song like this :— 

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we 
wept when we remembered Zion. 

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst 
thereof. 

For there they that carried us away captive required 
of us a song and they that wasted us required of us 
mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 

Ho 7U shall 7ve sing the Lord's song in a strange landt 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


7 


If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand for¬ 
get her cunning. 

If I do ?iot remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the 
roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my 
chief joy.” 

That Mercy Seat at Jerusalem, shadowed by the 
wings of the golden cherubim, has never been re¬ 
moved from the Jewish heart. 

It was like the altar, our mother’s knee in the old 
homestead, where first we knelt to say, “Now I lay 
me down to sleep.” 

It’s the last stronghold in human memory that In¬ 
fidelity shall ever take away from religion. 

We must not forget that Jesus was human as well 
as divine—and that as human He loved His people, 
loved His country and her time-honored memories. 

He had His social friends and comrades too, as 
other men have: and when He chose His apostles 
and gave them “power against unclean spirits, to 
cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness 
and all manner of disease ,” He sent them forth 
“not into the way oj the Gentiles , or into any city 
of the Samaritans , but rather to the lost sheef of 
the house of Israel ’ to proclaim to them “the king¬ 
dom of heaven is at hand, ’ "first of all. Matt, x ; 1, 7. 

His visits to the home of Martha and Mary and 
* Lazarus with the tender incidents recorded of them 
touch against our hearts as tenderly as the coming 
of our loved ones did in the happy days of our child¬ 
hood, when family reunions were had at feast or 
funeral, in our own homes. 


8 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


Yes, His human-heartedness touched the whole 
picture He has left of His life, from John the "‘be¬ 
loved” apostle even down to His love of little chil¬ 
dren curiously scanning the wonderful man whose 
presence in the wilderness emptied all homes to see 
Him, and to hear His wonderful words. 

Christian people of to-day are too much afraid of 
hearing Jesus called human —as much indeed, as if 
He was not of our species, and had never worn this 
poor robe of flesh that hides the divine soul. 

We have forgotten Him as “ the man of sorrozus 
and acquainted with grieff we have lost sight of 
Him as a neighbor, and friend, and visitor, and 
helper, and brother as He used to be when “ He 
came to His own and His own knew Him notf 
while He walked among the hills and in the groves 
of Galilee. 

He does not come about our homes so familiarly 
as He ought to come, that the little ones of our 
house might recognize Him in the feeling of a kin¬ 
dred touch that made them once the “ greatest in 
the kingdom of heaven ” even in the presence of 
His apostles! 

We do not remember as we ought that this man 
Jesus was a citizen, a son, a brother, a friend, a 
neighbor, having the native instincts common to hu¬ 
manity, and, that in a thousand ways, His heart was 
crucified like the heart of all those who truly follow 
Him. 

He was the citizen of a poor and bleeding country. 

He saw Herod and Pilate, the minions of a heathen 
empire, lording it over a downtrodden people. 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


9 


He saw Annas and Caiaphas—the mere perfunc- 
tories of the highest and most solemn trusts—and 
that sacred temple, “the house of frayer ,” made “a 
den of thieves . ” 

He saw all this, felt all this—how keenly ! 

Humanly speaking, He was known but as a 
‘‘Jewish peasant.” Yet, He knew better. He was 
descended of a line of kings, and He knew it. 

The genealogies of earth may pass for nothing 
when war and carnage and captivity grind a nation 
to powder in any age—and kingly titles may be 
made but sewage for the Euphrates, the Tiber or the 
Thames. But there remains “a Seed,” in blood, 
whose line of life no change of circumstance can 
break asunder. 

Remembering that‘‘Seed” and looking up that 
proud stair of lineage—even human lineage—Jesus 
could call king David, father, and Abraham his an¬ 
cestor. 

Whose ancestry was ever higher on a kingly line ? 

Whoever wore a crown, bore a sword, or swept a 
harp like David’s? Whoever saw a glory like Sol¬ 
omon’s? 

Whoever raised an altar to faith like Abraham’s? 

How could Jesus look on Pilate save with con¬ 
tempt or pity ? 

But such was the situation, such was the “logic 
of events ;” and Jesus like every high-born soul po¬ 
litically crushed must bear it. He must supinely 
bear it, or conceive some way out of it—if there 
were a way. 

He had read of and, doubtless, had thought many 


10 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


a time over the “Restoration of Israel”—that great 
information so long sung by poet, so vividly visioned 
by the prophets—of hopeful, faithful, stricken, Israel. 

Heard He often haunting Him that echo, up every 
vale, by every mountain side :— 

Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel, be glad 
and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem . 

The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast 
out thine enemy: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in 
the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any morel Zeph. 
Chap. Hi. 

Doubtless He believed that olden prophecy, too, 
which said to Israel so long ago that. God would 
some day raise up a leader like unto Moses, who 
should give deliverance to her people ;—and that 
prophecy of Jacob that, 

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law¬ 
giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and untv 
him shall the gathering of the people be. Genesis, xlix. 

But in what way, in what sense? 

Did Jesus hope for a mere temporal re-establish* 
ment of the Jewish State? 

His disciples seemed to hold this view at one time. 

But as for Jesus—He looked farther, hoped far¬ 
ther and believed father than a mere temporal, civil, 
political or national reformation or re-establishment 
of Israel. This for the throne of David was not 
only impossible—but unworthy of One whose mis¬ 
sion aspired to lift to a higher plane not only Israel 
but all mankind . and whose ambition, full, was 
voiced in the words “ Son of Man”—“ Son of God. ’ ’ 

The mightiness of that one idea made Him to 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


11 


stand alone, against the prejudices of His own people 
—and in a large sense, against the teachings of all 
His cotemporaries, as well as against Moses himself, 
the great law-giver and deliverer, in many things 
dear and sacred to the whole Jewish nation from 
the times of the Mosaic Institution, and, in addition 
to this, to stand opposed to all men’s ideas in the 
Reformation of Humanity. 

Few men have attempted during the world’s long 
history to reform even one nation—when that nation 
alone was unanimously opposed to the reform. 

Few men in politics, morals, or religion have been 
bold enough to attempt a reformation anywhere in 
our world’s history smgled-handed and alone. 

“The voice of the people,” uttered or felt, must 
be known to most reformers before they set out on 
that steep path called reformation. 

Even in the broadest and noblest republics now 
nineteen centuries from Jesus—the maxim is cheered 
to the echo that “the voice of the people is the 
voice of God.” 

“The people are the Goverment”—is a trite but 
dear saying even to the grandest of Republics. 

How would one of us, children of liberty, begin 
a reformation to-day in our own country, if every 
other man was opposed to such a reform? Who 
would be bold enough to attempt it ? 

Yet this man Jesus had just such an attempt to 
make, just such a reform to inaugurate and to carry 
out. What an individual power that must have been 
in Him to begin such a reform as against the whole 
world ! 


12 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


What a prospect lay along the path of His march 
—Gethsemane, the saddest of gardens, and farther 
on Golgotha the skull-shaped mount, pinnacled with 
a Roman Cross—and Aceldama, perhaps, for His 
hurrying ground! 

These stared Jesus in the face for weeks, for 
months, for years. History has recorded it of Him 
that He knew this would be the end of His attempt. 

It may be doubted whether it has recorded a sim¬ 
ilar case, of a sane man’s so bold attempt. 

We want to keep in view for three long years at 
least, Gethsemane and Golgotha, and we want the 
Cranium and its pinnacle, the Cross—to haunt this 
history day and night, as He walked the dells of 
Galilee or wandered by the sunset mountain sides, 
or sat by the sea, seeking peace under such a con¬ 
templation. 

We want Golgotha and the Cross surrounded by 
and bristling with the rough Roman spears, to break 
in upon His vision now and then, as He talked of 
the lilies, spoke the beatitudes on the mount, or lifted 
the little children up into the light of God—in order 
that we may know somewhat of the character of 
the man Jesus whom we have here arraigned before 
Pilate—and to know the offense of that doctrine 
that He urged, and for which, side by side with rob¬ 
bers and thieves, He climbs the Hill of Crucifixion 
as a brother man to all. 

It may help us to a better understanding of “the 
plan of salvation” if we can draw nearer to that one 
idea upon which Jesus founded the highest individ¬ 
uality yet attained by man in any age, and which 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


13 


marked Him at once the Son of man and Son of 
God, as no other son of Adam was ever marked. 

His crucifixion had a meaning in it, and there was 
a cause for it and a need for it. 

He assumed it, from beginning to end. He under¬ 
stood and undertook to carry out the whole scheme. 
He planned it—as one having power to lay down 
His life, and to take it up. 

God’s will, He knew, was at the bottom of this 
whole reform. 

He understood it in a better and clearer way than 
any one of the twelve, and far better than you or I 
do to-day. He could see its results on humanity-to- 
come, and understood its blessings even as He un¬ 
derstood the sermon on the mount. 

Who can hear and do those precepts taught on 
that mount: 

“But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but who¬ 
soever shalt smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the 
other also. And if any man sue thee at the law and take 
away thy coat let him have thy cloak also. A nd whoso¬ 
ever shall compel thee to go a mile go until him twain. 
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would 
borrow of thee turn thou not azvay. Love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, and do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and per¬ 
secute you ; that ye may be the children of your Father 
which is in heaven .” Matt, v, 39-44. 

How far ahead of the times in which He lived 
was such a philosophy as this. 

Two thousand years have rolled away, with their 
progress in art and literature, in music, painting and 


14 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


poesy, but the “sermon on the Mount” has never 
been surpassed. 

The poor—the ones that mourn, the meek, 

THE MERCIFUL, THE PURE IN HEART, THE PEACE¬ 
MAKERS IN ONE GREAT PAINTING SET, WHERE THE 
LILIES, GOD-CLAD, ARE BLOOMING BEYOND THE 
GLORY OF SOLOMON; AND THE BIRDS, GOD-FED 
ARE WARBLING THE ECHO OF THAT STRAIN—“LOVe 
YOUR ENEMIES, BLESS THEM THAT CURSE, DO GOOD 
TO THEM THAT HATE, AND PRAY FOR THEM THAT 
PERSECUTE.” 

I wonder where that mountain is? for I would 
love to see it; I wonder where those lilies blow, and 
in their voices sweet and low, those birds of Peace 
are singing. 

You may cull the blooms of all literature, but 
you’ll not find such music-words as did that moun¬ 
tain shake, that broke from lily-mouths, and echoed 
there on lips of birds. 

This is the doctrine then, He taught, the pure in 
heart alone can fully hear or fully see, and which 
once heard or felt aright makes for those happy 
ones sweet vision of our God. 

These sayings of His, these precepts form but a 
part of the New Doctrine that caused His arraign¬ 
ment, His trial, and ended in His crucifixon. 

For Jesus died on His doctrine—His teaching. 

He died to establish a system of doctrine* A 
system which He knew best adapted to the salva¬ 
tion of the race called man—when that race should 
learn the mighty lesson of its practice. 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


15 


He lived it. while He taught it. and taught it by 
living it—looking to that terrible day when on a 
Roman cross He should seal the doctrine with His 
own heart’s blood, and leave that life as a testa¬ 
ment, a will, a legacy to him or her that might be 
able to follow in His bleeding footsteps for all time 
to come. 

The story of the cross has been often told in part. 
It has often too become a sort of myth, a fairy tale 
to amuse, a sort of intellectual theatrical, upon which 
thought and feeling may play—a mere recreation. 
But the true story can only be read and appreciated 
by souls of power and great depth. 

Men and women to appreciate it, must be men 
and women of that infinite strength of soul which 
can enter into the great passion which Jesus groaned 
under for three long years. 

It strikes me forcibly to say little men can never 
be Christians. There must be some masterfulness 
about the man that wants to be like Jesus. 

No reform, no reformation, no repentence, no 
true awakening r ever began to be in any soul for 
good, that had not the masterfulness of patience, in¬ 
finite capacity to suffer. 

Jesus was descended from a people inured to suf¬ 
fering ; their history is a most interesting one in that 
one feature at least. Their connection with old 
Egypt and their four centuries of patient servitude, 
their wanderings in the deserts of Arabia, their 
struggles for conquest over Palestine, their whole¬ 
sale captivities and exile afterwards, form a chain 
of circumstances whose unyielding links must have 


16 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


taught them all and did evolve in not a few the vir¬ 
tue of a patience, the strength of a will, and the 
depth of a faith, which tempest tossed on the dark 
waves of calamity upon calamity, held like an an¬ 
chor about the rock of national hope that has never 
been moved under the pilgrimage of a thousand 
exiles. 

Zion and Jerusalem have never been forgotten. 
With what zeal thev have always sung in the words 
of King David: 

“Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may 
Israel now say: 

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet 
they have not prevailed against me. ” Ps. cxxix. 

But that national hope was never realized, per¬ 
haps, most probably it never will be. as they looked 
for its realization. 

They misapprehended their prophets’ teaching in 
relation to it. They knew not their greatest Prophet 
when He came. Their plan for restoration was not 
His plan. 

The faith of Abraham had been narrowed down 
in the Mosaic system which was only a preparation 
for the time till the Redeemer should come, and by 
a new way turn all nations into the one family whose 
members all should be children of the great Father 
of the faithful. 

That day had now come, when in the beautiful 
little city in which Jesus had been brought up, He 
read the Messianic Proclamation from Israel’s grand 
prophet, Isaiah : 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


17 


“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me\ because the 
Lord hath annointed me to preach good tidings unto the 
meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to 
proclaim liberty to the captives , and the opening of the 
prison to them that are bound; 

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." 

To-day ,” said He, is this scripture fulfilled in 
your ears , and passing through the midst of them 
opposing, went on His way never to return to His 
home again. 

We have not time or space to follow Him on His 
three years mission of teaching, healing, and mir¬ 
acle—much less to follow out what else of that 
most eventful time. We can merely touch upon 
that beautiful life shaded every where with a tinge 
of sadness, from the years of infancy even unto 
Calvary. 

There is a legend old; set in painting— 

That, while an infant yet, in Egypt fleeing, 

They one eve were resting, He and Mary 
His mother, and her good husband Joseph; 

He, the husband, lying in the low tent 
Was dreaming, fifteen centuries gone by; 

When his people suffered neath the same sky, 

Under Pharaoh’s bondage, till their great cry 
Rose, like the ocean’s tongue to God on high; 

She, the mother, Him was watching, by the vale 
Of Egypt’s River winding by green isles 
And ruined temple-walls her fathers built 
Or helped to build, when Joseph was as king— 

And after that, when God by Moses sundered 
Egypt’s bonds, and every home did plunder 
Of its first-born, save of all that number 
No home of Israel—whose low lintel 
Hyssop-crossed and doorway stained by tfie blood 


2 


18 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


Of Paschal lamb:— 

When lo! like spectre dark, a shadow fell, 

At her babe’s feet—as there He stood with arms 
Outstretched in the low-light of setting sun 
The Paschal Lamb upon the Cross, to come, 

The shadow of the Cross 

The richest woman of earth's proudest kingly 
realm, and an intimate social friend of Victoria, 
owns this painting to-day, of this legend of the 
Infant Jesus standing on the shadow cross, and 
fulfilling —“Out of Egy^t have I called my Son .” 
(Matt, ii, 15.) 

The last days of Jesus embrace, as given in the 
New Testament accounts, these four events :—the 
last supper, passion, trial and crucifixion ; of the 
last supper set 

“Secret and holy in the city’s midst 

“Where He did break them bread and pour them wine 

“And wash the feet of all the Twelve; 

“That last dread night 

“Eve of the cross—He passed, as all men pass 
“Into his anguish—to Gethsemane;” 

And “Pilate’s wrath, 

“The scourge; the mocking purple cloak; the crown 
“Jewelled with blood, and path to Golgotha; 

“The cruel cross; the cruel cross, 

“The savage rending nails; the scroll; the sponge 

“The cry ‘Eloi, lama Sabacthani!’ and then 

“His death-word, ‘It is finished.’ ”— Sir Edwin Arnold. 

The open, overt persecution of Jesus began from 
the time of His healing the lame man, who for 
thirty-eight j^ears had labored under an infirmity. 
(See John v ; 5, 9.) The simple command to the 
man whom lie healed to take up his bed and walk 
aroused the Jews to fury. 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


19 


He was summoned before a committee of the 
Sanhedrin, but they did not then dare to punish 
His violation of their Sabbath, knowing His power 
with the people. But from that day forward the 
authorities at Jerusalem seem to have determined 
on His death ; and such was their bitter and un¬ 
ceasing hostility, that Jesus left Jerusalem with¬ 
out waiting for the approaching passover. 

The remainder of His life may be said to have 
been spent in peril, in flight and in concealment; 
appearing now and then for brief periods in Gali¬ 
lee and Jerusalem. 

He departed from Capernaum His accustomed 
home and went into the heathen regions of Tyre 
and Sidon, and thence southward again keeping 
mainly to the eastward and less inhabited country, 
only now and then healing a sufferer, but by de¬ 
grees attracting crowds again. 

After this period of wandering and absence, He 
once more sailed to Magdala, but was met immed¬ 
iately by the Herodians and Pharisees with a hos¬ 
tile demand for a sign. Turning away from them. 
He uttered His last farewell to the cities in which 
He had labored ; and once more journeyed north¬ 
ward and came to Caesarea Philippi. 

It was here and at this time that Peter gave that 
which henceforth was to be the answer of all the 
Christian world :—“Thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living GodC 

Christ left Ephraim with the great caravan of 
Galilean pilgrims that were on the road to the 
Passover—which was to be His last. 


20 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


His apostles were now well aware from His own 
warnings that a crisis of His career had arrived. 
He had told them plainly that the crowning horror 
of being crucified was certain. 

When they came near to Jericho, accompanied 
by excited multitudes He healed the blind Bartim- 
aeus, and while there excited the murmurs of the 
crowd by accepting the hospitality of the publican 
Zacheus. 

He passed from Jericho to Bethany, arriving at 
Bethany probably on Friday, March 31, A. d. 30, 
six days before the Passover. It was on this oc¬ 
casion that Martha and Mary gave Him a banquet 
in the house of Simon, the leper, where Mary in 
gratitude broke the vessel of precious ointment over 
His head and feet. 

On the morning of Palm Sunday Jesus made 
His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and as He 
came in sight paused to weep over it and prophesv 
its doom, saying: 

If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy 
day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but uow they 
are hid from thine eyes. 

For the days shall come upon thee, that thme enemies 
shall cast a trench about thee , and compass thee round , 
and keep thee in on every side, 

And shall lay thee even with the ground , and thy chil¬ 
dren within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one 
stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of' 
thy visitation. Luke xix: 42 - 44 . 

At the evening He retired for safety with His 
twelve disciples outside the city walls, in the direc- 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


21 


tion of Bethany. On Monday morning He went 
again to Jerusalem, and on going into the temple 
He was met by the priests, scribes and rabbis de¬ 
manding by what authority He was acting. At 
evening He again retired from the city. 

The next day, which was Tuesday of Passion 
week, was marked by several attempts of the rulers 
to undermine His authority, by involving Him in 
some difficulty, either with them or the people. In 
the temple He was first met by the plot of the 
Herodians and Pharisees, to embroil Him either 
with the Romans or the populace by the question 
of paying tribute to Caesar, then on the part of the 
Sadduces by a question concerning the resurrection, 
and then by a scribe as to the great commandment 
of the Law. (See Mark xii, 13-32.) 

To all of these by His ready wisdom He showed 
I-Iimself superior in knowledge and insight, and 
entirely defeated these stratagems of the Sanhe- 
drists. 

Then it was that He delivered the terrible denun¬ 
ciation against their degradation of religion into a 
mere tyranny and formalism, in those words: 

u Woe unto you scribes, and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
ye devour widows ’ houses, and for a preteiice make long 
prayers, therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he 
is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than 
yourselves. Matt, xxiii: 14, 15. 

These were terrible words to have been uttered 
at a time like this, and addressed to such an au- 


22 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


dience as was His. But the battle was now on, 
and Jesus must either retreat from the great stand 
He had taken, or defeat, by the truth, the wicked¬ 
ness, deceit and hypocrisy that reigned among the 
rulers of His people. He had undertaken a mighty 
reform, He must carry it out. The Jewish author¬ 
ities felt that this was a final rupture, and that they 
must now at all costs bring about His speedy death. 

He now left the temple forever, and went and sat 
on the green slopes of the Mount of Olives, over 
against the temple. There He pronounced that 
great discourse to His disciples, Peter, James, John, 
Andrew and the rest, concerning the great events 
to come. (See Mark xiii, j-27.J 

In the cool of the evening they walked to Beth¬ 
any, doubtless about the time that Judas was plott¬ 
ing with the priests the plan for His arrest. 

Wednesday seems to have been spent in deep re¬ 
tirement at Bethany, as not a single incident is re¬ 
corded of that day. 

Next morning, Thursday, He woke never to 
sleep again. 

On the evening of that day He went with His 
disciples to Jerusalem to keep that quasi-Paschal 
feast, which in better days had been long solemn¬ 
ized in memory of that night when God smiting the 
first born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses 
of the Israelites which were marked with the blood 
of the paschal lamb. (See Exodus xii, 29.) 

It was then that He instituted the sacrament of the 
Eucharist. During this supper He told John and 
Peter that He knew who the traitor apostle was. 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


23 


He also announced that this was the last meal He 
should eat with them, and bade them henceforth to 
keep it in sacramental memory of Him. 

Then suddenly at a distance the torches flashed 
upon the darkness, as Judas, followed by the priests 
and their servants, and Levites of the temple-guard 
and Roman soldiers, crossed the valley of Kidron 
to the slope of Olivet on which the garden lay. 
There Judas betrayed Him with a kiss, and with 
the words, “Hail Master!” 

About the little band of Jesus crowded the chief 
priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders ; 
and His disciples seeing what would follow, they 
said to Him, “Lord, shall we smite them with the 
sword?” But Jesus having forbidden them, they 
all forsook Him and fled. 

Then they took Him, and led Him into the high 
priest’s house. He was then taken before the shrewd 
and aged Annas, who was regarded high priest by 
right, though not in fact. On His refusal to plead 
before this disorderly midnight tribunal, He was 
struck on the mouth, and failing to extort anything 
from Him, Annas sent Him across the court-yard 
to Caiaphas, the de facto high priest. 

It was still night, and here took place the second 
informal and illegal trial, before His worst enemies, 
the priests and the Sadducees. The false witnesses 
who endeavored to convict Him of having threat¬ 
ened to destroy the temple, failed, and He pre¬ 
served unbroken silence until Caiaphas adjured Him 
by the living God to tell whether He was the Mes¬ 
siah, the Son of God. In answer to this appeal, 


24 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


He said, “I am.” Then Caiaphas rent His robes, 
with the cry of “blasphemy and the committee of 
the Sanhedrin declared Him “guilty of death.” 

Jesus was now remanded to the guardroom until 
day should break, before which time the whole 
Sanhedrin could not meet. It was during his 
passage to the guardroom that he met Peter’s eye, 
who had just denied Him with oaths. 

As he waited he was insulted by the violence and 
coarse derision of the priest’s menials. 

When the full Sanhedrin met in the morning they 
once more failed to fix any charge upon him what¬ 
ever, save the claim which He repeated, of being 
the Son of God. 

He was then formally condemned to death. 

But at this period the Jews had lost all legal right 
to carry out sentence of death. 

Moreover it must be that they desired to avoid 
responsibility and danger of vengeance from the 
many followers of Jesus; and hence handed Him 
over for execution to the Roman procurator, Pilate. 
They therefore led Jesus bound to him. 

They supposed that he would crucify Jesus per¬ 
haps on their bare word, without further enquiry of 
His guilt or innocence. In this they were mis¬ 
taken. 

Pilate’s colloquy with them failed to establish any 
charge definite enough to satisfy himself, and after 
calling Jesus into the praetorium and examining 
Him he came out to the Jews with the declaration 
of complete acqutttal and said : 

“ Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that per- 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


25 


verteth the people; and, behold, 1 , having examined him 
before you, have found no fault in this man touching those 
things whereof ye accuse him: 

No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, noth¬ 
ing worthy of death is done unto him.” Luke xxii. 

In the wild clamor that ensued he caught the 
word Galilee, and understanding that Jesus had 
chiefly taught in Galilee, had sought to rid himself 
of this dilemma by sending Him to Herod. 

Before Herod He maintained the same majestic 
silence as before Pilate ; and being unable to con¬ 
demn Him, Herod had arrayed Him in a white 
robe and sent Him back to the procurator Pilate.* 

Then began the third and most agonizing phase 
of the public trial. Pilate, seated on his bema, de¬ 
clared that, as His innocence was now certain, he 
would scourge Jesus and dismiss Him. 

This was a disgraceful proposal, though due to 
the desire to save the life of one he saw to be inno¬ 
cent but dictated mainly by fear of another riot. 

Pilate’s whole action was practically controlled 
by his past guilt and the thought of what the Jews, 
Samaritans and Galileans could prefer against him 
by way of complaint to Caesar, his master at Rome, 
and the Senate. He could not therefore afford to 
turn a deaf ear to the cry of the mob hounded on 
as they were by the priests and Sanhedrists—for the 
passover boon of having a prisoner released to 


*The reader is referred to the Acts of Pilate II Greek Form, 
Chap, x, as to the white robe here mentioned. 



2G 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


them, and he vainly tried to induce them to ask for 
the liberation of Jesus. 

But they demanded the rebel and murderer Bar 
Abbas and shouted for the crucifixion of Jesus, and 
having obtained Bar Abbas, they took Jesus and 
horribly scourged Him at the hands of the Roman 
soldiery, who followed this up with arraying Him 
in an old crimson robe putting a crown of thorns 
on His head, and a reed in His hand for a scepter. 

When Jesus came forth after this hour of agony, 
Pilate made one more appeal to their compassion in 
the words “Behold the man !” and on hearing that 
He claimed to be the Son of God, he became still 
more alarmed for Him, and once more questioned 
Jesus in a private interview. 

For some time Jesus would not speak. When 
He did it was to say that He regarded Pilate as less 
guilty than the Jews. 

As Pilate led Him forth, and saw Him stand be¬ 
fore the shameful, yelling multitude in His majesty 
of solemn woe, he broke forth into the involuntary 
exclamation, “Behold your king !” But the Jews 
cried out—“Away with Him ! away with Him, cru¬ 
cify Him!”—and the chief priests shouted “we 
have no king but Caesar”—reminding Pilate that if 
he “let this man go, he was not a friend to Caesar.” 

Pilate then publicly washed his hands in token 
that he was innocent of this death, and pronounced 
the fatal order for His crucifixion. 

The last judicial act over, Jesus laden with the 
cross, walking between two robbers, began the 
march to the Hill of Crucifixion. 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


27 


And when they came to the place, they stripped 
Him of His garments and girt Him about with a 
linen cloth, and put a crown of thorns upon His 
head. Likewise, also, they hanged the two robbers 
with Him, Dismas on the right and Gestas on the 
left.* 

“And sitting down they watched him there; 

And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS 
IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 

And they that passed by reviled him wagging their 
heads, 

And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, andbuild- 
est it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of 
God, come down from the cross. 

Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the 
scribes and elders, said, 

He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be 
King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, 
and we will believe him. 

He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will 
have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. 

One of the thieves also, which were crucified with him, 
cast the same in his teeth. 

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all 
the land until the ninth hour. 

A nd about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice y 
saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken met 

Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, 
watching Jesus, saw the earth-quake, and those thing? 


See Acts of Pilate, last line of ist. Greek Form chap, ix, 



JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


28 


that were done, they feared greatly saying, Truly this 
was the Son of God. 

And no7v when the even was come, because it was the 
preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 

Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor, which 
also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in 
boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. 

And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and 
calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he 
had been any while dead. 

And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the 
body to Joseph. 

And he brought fine linen, and took him down, and 
wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre 
which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto 
the door of the sepulchre.” 

Thus ends the simple story of the crucifixion. 

His disciples, the companions of His ministry, 
witnesses of His mighty deeds, hearers of His 
mighty words, believers in His bright promises, 
were now left in blankest despair. 


“How lost they stood, defeated, abject, shamed, 

“Those Twelve—excepting one—and all of them 
“Who fled Gethsemane—and she—yes she 
“Who bore Him.” 

“Only this left of those high-nourished dreams 
“About the times to follow Galilee, 

“When He should sit upon His kingdom’s throne 
“And rule the land, and give to Israel 
“The Roman eagles driven screaming off 
“Days of King David’s majesty again 
“Solomon’s splendors—more than Solomon’s.” 

Sir Edwin Arnold. 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


29 


What a poor nucleus for a kingdom there !—those 
simple fishermen and those poor women crazed with 
grief, around that sepulcher, which they might not 
come too near—guarded by the Roman spear. 

The history of Christianity large as it is, wide as 
it is, and wonderful as it is, circles around this little 
picture. 

It looks, to one removed into the 19th century, 
like a great miracle to go back in thought to the 
little garden and the new rock-cut tomb of Jesus, 
and see those humble mourners there who in those 
glad days of Galilee left all and followed Him: 
“certain and sure the angels ’ song was true , that 
Heaven's joy was come in this sweet , well-heloved 
Son of Man." 

From that time forward till now some of the best 
intellects of the brightest civilizations have attempted 
to account for the rise, progress, and triumph of 
Christianity without an appeal to the supernatural. 

But this attempt has not yet been able to satisfy 
the world that Jesus was only an ordinary man—a 
mere philospher, whose intuitions into nature’s laws 
gave Him the mighty power He has so long wielded 
over the best part of humanity—and set Him far 
above the past, the present and the to-come of all 
human teachers. 

His ablest critics in destructive criticism, have 
said enough of Him to defeat the mere idea of His 
being only human. 

No finer words were ever penned than those of 
the great opponents of His supernatural origin. 


so 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


Humanity as a whole presents an assemblage of beings 
low and selfish, scarcely superior to the lower creatures. 

But amid this uniform commonness pillars arise toward 
heaven and attest a more noble destiny. 

Jesus is the highest of these pillars, which show to man 
whence he came and whither he should tend. 

Jesus is the individual who has caused his species to 
make the greatest advance toward the divine. 

Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus 
will ?iever be surpassed. 

His Worship will grow young without ceasing, his 
lege7id will call forth tears without end; his sufferings 
will melt the noblest hearts, all ages will proclaim that 
among the sons of men there is none born greater than 
Jesus.” Renan's Life of Jesus. 

These are the great words from a great man in 
history and science, in his masterpiece of skill, to 
tone the picture he has drawn, down to the common 
level of the mere human. 

But this miracle of life, this strange and wonder¬ 
ful phenomenon carries an element along too subtle 
for the grasp of poor human analysis. 

“Genius,” “madness,” “disease” and all “anom¬ 
aly” can not help here. 

Call it what you will, there is a miracle hid with¬ 
in, and circling round the whole life of Jesus, that 
like to life’s own secret force is far outside, beyond 
the poor analyses of human reach. 

Whether in “the poet’s haunt,” whether by “the 
scholar’s lamp,” or in “the statesman’s scheme,'” 
“the vaunt, the failure, of all fond philosophies”— 
still “must we steal back to Him who made our 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


31 


Christendom,” to rest our hearts, and feel that peace 
that earth can neither give nor take away. 

This is the experience of the best amongst man- 
*kind since He left who said, *T am the bread of 

LIFE : HE THAT COMETH TO ME SHALL NEVER HUN¬ 
GER, AND HE THAT BELIEVETH ON ME SHALL NEVER 
THIRST.” 

How like a stream these words have watered the 
waste places of the heart’s desert. The five thous¬ 
and that He fed in the desert place was but the 
nucleus of that unnumbered multitude of hungry 
ones that have since then, and do to-day, eat at His 
table spread on the lawns of kings, or by the wil¬ 
derness where famishing pilgrims rest along the 
stream of life, and quench their thirst. 

We need not draw a fancy sketch, or ply the ar¬ 
gument of numbers here : 


His Cause no more, her “fishermen” alone 

So vagabond, or Lazarus, so poor 

In wealth of gold—but not of mind—can boast. 

It shines with men of noblest sort, in birth, 

With life-of-woman-free—the mother’s gift 
Through Him, who was “the Seed to be”—now come— 

Of woman crushing down the serpent-head 
Of evil, promised now so long ago. 

Great Russia, England, Germany, 

The proudest kingdom’s girt by sea, 

And ours,“the Land of Liberty”— 

Are parts of His one holy see. 

His crucifix the badge they wear, 

In times of peace or time of war, 

His name enstamped on every prayer 
At marriage feast, at crib, or bier. 

Stand by the manger—cradle of Jesus in Beth- 


32 


JESUS CRUCIFIED. 


lehem—stand by the wooden cross on Calvary— 
stand by them now, and you will behold between 
the Then and Now wrought out the one great 
miracle. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


CONTENTS- : 


CHAPTER I.—The Jews call a council among which are An¬ 
nas, Caiaphas, Semes, Dathres and others—bring¬ 
ing the accusations against Jesus, of calling him¬ 
self Son of God, doing away with the law of the 
fathers, and profaning the Sabbath. They com¬ 
plain of the manner in which Pilate has Jesus 
summoned. Deny that the standards were prop¬ 
erly held up etc. 

IT.—Pilate, seeing the standard’s bow down, is. 
afraid, and seeks to go away from the tribunal. 
Message from his wife to have nothing to do with, 
the just man. He appeals to Jesus to answer 
the accusations—Jews charge Jesus of being; 
born of fornication, of His birth causing the 
slaughter of infants, and His father and mother 
Joseph and Mary as having no confidence with 
the people. Twelve men among the Jews who 
deny that Jesus was born of fornication. 

III.—Pilate becomes angry against the priests and 
other accusers of Jesus. Declares that he finds 
no fault in the man Jesus. Speaks with Jesus 
privately inside the pretorium as to His claim of 
kingship- Jesus explains that His kingdom is 
not of this world. Pilate demands of Him what 
truth is. 




CONTENTS. 


o 1 
o4 


IV.—Pilate leaves Jesus within the pretoriitm, anti 
goes out to parley with the Jews. He summons 
the elders, priests and Levites and speaks to them 
privately, persuading them not to act as' they are 
doing, dismisses the Jews from the pretorium and 
again talks privately with Jesus. Tells the Jews, 
after another parley with them, to lead Jesus 
away and judge Him according to their law. But 
they answer that they wish Him crucified. 

V.—Nicodemus addresses Pilate in behalf of Jesus. 
The Jews answer Nicodemus and become greatly 
enraged at him for taking the part of Jesus, in¬ 
somuch that Pilate wonders at their heat. 

VI.—The Jew whom Jesus had healed of a disease 
of thirty-eight years standing begs to speak to 
Pilate, and is granted the privilege. He tells the 
story of his cure. Another Jew, that was deaf 
and dumb, tells his story by Pilate’s permission, 
and still another, a cripple, and also a leper tells 
Pilate how Jesus cured them with a word. 

VII.—The woman who had been cured of an issue 
of blood by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment 
cries out from a distance, proclaiming her testi¬ 
mony, The Jews insist on a woman’s testimony 
not being received. 

VIII.—A whole multitude of men and women declare 
Jesus to be a mighty prophet, and that the de¬ 
mons are subject to Him. Others tell of His 
raising Lazarus from the dead. 

IX.—Pilate summons Nicodemus and the twelve per¬ 
sons who said Jesus was not born of fornication, 
asks what to do, telling them that there was an 
insurrection among the people. Pilate calls all 
the multitude together and offers to release Jesus 
as an innocent man, instead of Bar Abbas, the 
murderer. The Jews cry out, “release unto us 
Bar Abbas—let Jesus be crucified.” 

X.—Jesus goes out of the pretorium, and the male¬ 
factors with Him. They strip Him and gird 
Him with a towel, put on Him a crown of thorns 


CONTENTS. 


and crucity Him—and the two malefactors with 
Him. The superscription “King of the Jews.” 

XT—Darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour. 
The curtain of the temple is split. The cry to 
His Father. The saying of the centurion. He 
reports to Pilate all that had happened. Pilate 
sends for the Jews after hearing the centurion’s 
report. Joseph of Arimathea begs the body of 
Jesus, and lays it in the tomb. 

XII.—The Jews search for Joseph for doing this; 
and for the twelve friends of Jesus who said He 
was not born of fornication; and for Nicodemus 
and many others who had testified in behalf of 
Jesus. Speeches of Nicodemus and Joseph to 
the Jews. The Jews seize Joseph and order him 
to be secured. They call a full council and con¬ 
sult about Joseph’s death. The Sanhedrin sends 
to prison for Joseph but find him not. 

XIII. —Some of the Roman guards come from the 
tomb of Jesus and report to the Jewish rulers 
what had happened, the earthquake, an angel 
seen coming down from heaven, etc. The Jews 
question the guards about what they had seen. 

XIV. —Phinees a priest, Addas a teacher, and Ilaggai 
a Levite come down to Jerusalem from Galilee 
and make a report to the rulers of the synagogue. 
The elders and priests question them as to this 
report. The priests make them swear not to re¬ 
port abroad what they have declared before the 
rulers. The rulers much distressed on account 
of the report. 

XV.—Nicodemus addresses the Sanhedrin in relation 
to the report brought by Phinees, Addas, Haggai. 
He proposes that men be sent out to look into 
the truth of the matter. The proposal accepted 
by the Sanhedrin, and the men are sent out. 
The men find not Jesus, but Joseph they find, 
at Arimathea. The Jews, on this, hold a coun¬ 
cil, and determine to send for Joseph. They 
-write a letter to him, and give direction to cer- 


36 


CONTENTS. 


tain men to deliver it to Joseph. lie receives the- 
letter and returns with the men, and makes a re¬ 
port to the Sanhedrin. 

XVI.—The rulers greatly astonished at Joseph’s narra¬ 
tive. A consultation among the priests. The 
men who reported that they had seen Jesus alive 
again are separated and examined singly. Their 
testimony is found to be concurrent and exact. 

























































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THE ACTS OF PILATE. 

(FIRST GREEK FORM.) 


It should be mentioned here that the Acts of Pilate are made up 
of Three Forms identical almost in some Chapters, but some addi¬ 
tional matter in each not contained in the other Forms. 

The arguments of Constantine Tischendorf as to the identity of 
the Acts of Pilate as here given, with those known to Justin and 
Tertullian, will be found at the end of the Acts. 

Dr. Tischendorf was not only the discoverer of these documents 
in their fifth century copies, but at the time of his demise in 1874, 
was regarded as one of the ablest, if not the ablest of paleograph¬ 
ers. The reader is therefore referred to his comments on these Acts 
of Pilate, as being the most critical, accurate and learned statement 
to be had in reference to these documents. 

They are printed here in close connection, for easy reference, and 
may be found also in one of Dr. Tischendorf s most accurate and 
critical works, written especially for the learned, “The Origin of our 
Four Gospels,” as translated by W. L. Gage under Tischendorfs 
sanction and by his own recpiest—p. p. 141 et seq. 

We append only a word further as prefatory to the Acts. 

The very learned historian Geo. Rawlinson in his “Historical Evi¬ 
dences Stated Anew with Special Reference to the Doubts and Dis¬ 
coveries of Modern Times,” says, It seems certain that Pilate re¬ 
mitted to Tiberius an account of the execution of our Lord, and 
the grounds of it, and that this document to which Justin Martyr 
more than once refers, was deposited in the Archives of the Empire. 

Rawlinson further adds in the same work that “these Acts of Pi¬ 
late were probably copied and disseminated by Christians who were 
members of Caesar’s household, and to whom the apostle Paul al¬ 
ludes in his letter to the Philippians. ” Ibid. 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


38 


Chapter 1 .—Having called a council, the high 
priests and the scribes Annas and Caiaphas and 
Semes and Dathaes, and Gamaliel. Judas, Levi and 
Nepthalim, Alexander and Jairus, and the rest of 
the Jews, came to Pilate accusing Jesus about many 
things saying: We know this man to be the son of 
Joseph the carpenter, born of Mary ; and he says 
that he is the Son of God. and a king; moreover, 
profanes the Sabbath, and wishes to do away with 
the law of our fathers. Pilate says : And what are 
the things which he does, to show that he wishes to 
do away with it? The Jews say: We have a law 
not to cure any one on the Sabbath ; but this man 
has, on the Sabbath, cured the lame and the crooked, 
the withered and the blind and the paralytic, the 
dumb and the demoniac, by evil practices? Pilate 
says to them : What evil practices? They say to 
him : He is a magician, and by Beelzebub, prince of 
the demons, he casts out the demons, and all are 
subject to him. Pilate says to them : This is not 
casting out the demons by an unclean spirit, but bv 
the god Esculapius. 

The Jews say to Pilate : We entreat your high¬ 
ness that he stand at the tribunal and be heard. 
And Pilate, having called them, says : Tell me how 
I, being a procurator, can try a king? They say to 
him : We do not say that he is a king, but he him¬ 
self says that he is. And Pilate, having called the 
runner says to him :* Let Jesus be brought in with 


♦The bringing of Jesus before Pilate is mentioned in all the Gos- 
pels under the simple statements—“They led him away and delivered 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 3<) 

respect. And the runner, going out and recogniz¬ 
ing him, adored him, and took his cloak into his 
hand and spread it on the ground, and says to him : 
My Lord, walk on this and come in, for the procu¬ 
rator calls thee. And the Jews, seeing what the 
runner had done, cried out against Pilate, saying: 
Why hast thou ordered him to come in by a runner, 
and not by a crier? for assuredly the runner, when 
he saw him, adored him, and spread his doublet on 
the ground and made him walk like a king. 

And Pilate, having called the runner, says to 
him : Why hast thou done this, and spread out thy 
cloak upon the earth and made Jesus walk upon it? 
The runner, says to him : My Lord procurator, when 
thou didst send me to Jerusalem to Alexander, I 
saw him sitting upon an ass, and the sons of the 
Hebrews held branches in their hands and shouted ; 
and others spread their clothes under him saying: 


him to Pontius Pilate the governor;” “And they carried him away, 
and delivered him unto Pilate;” “And they led him unto Pilate;” 
“Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of Judgment.” 
It may be doubted whether any of the Evangelists quoted above 
were eye witnesses to the scenes described here in the account given 
of the bringing of Jesus before the tribunal of the Roman governor. 
Peter seems to have been present, and “that other disciple” men¬ 
tioned by John; but whether this “other disciple” was John himself 
must be left to conjecture; though it is generally believed that John 
was present, and he is here referred to. 

The account given in the Acts of Pilate is minute, simple, straight¬ 
forward; and as we know nothing contradictory of it in other writ¬ 
ings on the same topic, we are prepared to accept it as a true narra¬ 
tive in detail of the arraignment of the Saviour before the judgment 
seat of Pilate. 



40 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


Save now, thou who art in the highest; blessed is 
he that cometh in the name of the Lord. 

The Jews cry out and say to the runner: The 
sons of the Hebrews shouted in Hebrew ; whence 
then, hast thou the Greek? The runner says to 
them : I asked one of the Jews, and said : What 
is it they are shouting in Hebrew? And he inter¬ 
preted it for me. Pilate says to them : And what 
did they shout in Hebrew? The Jews say to him : 
Hosanna membrome bar tic hamma adonai. Pilate 
says to them : And this hosanna, etc., how is it in¬ 
terpreted? The Jews say to him : Save now in the 
highest; blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
the Lord. Pilate says to them : If you bear wit¬ 
ness to the words spoken by the children, in what 
has the runner done wrong? And they were silent. 
And the procurator says to the runner: Go out and 
bring him in what way thou wilt. And the runner, 
going out, did in the same manner as before, and 
says to Jesus : My Lord, come in ; the procutator 
calleth thee. 

And Jesus, going in, and the standard-bearers 
holding their standards, the tops of the standards 
bent down,* and adored Jesus. And the Jews, see- 


*The Roman standards were surmounted by an eagle of gold or 
silver in relievo, of the size of a pigeon, which was borne on the 
tops of spears, with its wings displayed and with a thunderbolt in its 
talons. On the body of the ensign were the capitals S. P. Q. R. 
the initial letters of the words Senatus Populus Que Romanus—the 
Senate and the Roman people. When the army marched, the eagle 
-was always visible to the legions; and when it encamped, the eagle 
-was placed before the prsetorium or tent of the general. 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


41 


ing the bearing of the standards how they were 
bent down and adored Jesus, cried out vehemently 
against the standard-bearers. And Pilate says to 
the Jews : Do you not wonder how the tops of the 
standards were bent down and adored Jesus? The 
Jews say to Pilate: We saw how the standard- 
bearers bent them down and adored him. And the 
procurator, having called the standard-bearers, says 
to them : Why have you done this? They say to 
Pilate : We are Greeks and temple-slaves, and how 
could we adore him? and assuredly, as we were 
holding them up, the tops bent down of their own 
accord and adored him. 

Pilate says to the rulers of the synagogue and 
the elders of the people : Do you choose for your¬ 
selves men strong and powerful, and let them hold 
up the standards, and let us see whether they will 
bend down with them. And the elders of the Jews 
picked out twelve men powerful and strong, and 
made them hold up the standards six by six ; and 
they were placed in front of the procurator’s tribu¬ 
nal. And Pilate says to the runner: Take him out¬ 
side of the Pretorium, and bring him in again in 
whatever way may please thee. And Jesus and 
the runner went out of the Pretorium. And Pilate, 
summoning those who had formerly held up the 


The eagle on the summit of an ivory staff was also the symbol of 
the consular dignity. The bowing of the standards, therefore, in 
rhe presence of Jesus was a fit prophecy that ere long the power of 
Rome, which they represented, should bow to the ride of him who 
was now being arraigned under them as a humiliated subject. 



42 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


standards, says to them : I have sworn by the health 
of Caesar, that if the standards do not bend down 
when Jesus comes in, I will cut off your heads- 
And the procurator ordered Jesus to come in the 
second time. And the runner did in the same 
manner as before, and made many entreaties to 
Jesus to walk on his cloak. And he walked on it 
and went in. And as he went in the standards 
were again bent down and adored Jesus. 

Chap. 2.— And Pilate, seeing this, was afraid- 
and sought to go away from the tribunal; but when 
he was still thinking of going away, his wife sent 
to him saying: Have nothing to do with this just 
man, for many things have I snffered on his account 
this night. And Pilate, summoning the Jews, says 
to them : You know that my wife is a worshiper of 
God, and prefers to adhere to the Jewish religion 
along with you. They say to him : Yes, we know. 
Pilate says to them: Behold, my wife has sent to 
me, saying, Have nothing to do with this just man, 
for many things have I suffered on account of him 
this night. And the Jews answering, say unto Pi¬ 
late : Did we not tell thee that he was a sorcerer ? 
behold, he has sent a dream to thy wife. 

And Pilate, having summoned Jesus, says to 
him : What do these witness against thee? Sayest 
thou nothing? And Jesus said; Unless they had 
the power, they would say nothing ; for every one 
has the power of his own mouth to speak both 
good and evil. They shall see to it. 

And the elders of the Jews answered, and said 
to Jesus: what shall we see? first, that thou wast 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


4a 


born of fornication ;* secondly, that thy birth in 


*This charge is not alluded to in any one of the Gospel narratives. 
There is a passage in Matthew which renders it more than probable- 
that the Jews were acquainted with the facts which at one time 
caused Joseph, the husband of Mary, so much anxiety as, that “being- 
a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, was 
minded to put her away privily.” It is highly probable that some 
intimation of the facts here alluded to was made to the Jews, or else 
this open and public charge would not at the time of the arraign¬ 
ment before Pilate have been so much insisted upon. We make 
mention of this point not for any purpose of discussing the sonship 
of Jesus. We accept the account as given in the New Testament— 
and as delivered by the angel to Joseph, “that which is begotten in 
her is of the Holy Ghost.” But, that the Jews, many of them at 
least, held to the opinion and expressed the same which is here nar¬ 
rated, that the birth of Jesus and his conception had nothing super¬ 
natural about it, it is certain. Whether this was based on honest 
conviction, or on prejudice or spite, must be left to the reader. It 
will be interesting at least to every reader to look into the law of 
betrothal as declared to have taken place between Joseph and Mary 
by other witnesses at the trial, and see how far it had to do with con¬ 
tradicting the charge here made by the priests and other opponents. 

“For some time after our Saviour’s ascension,” says Lardner, “the 
Jews aspersed the character of Mary, our Lord’s mother, and re¬ 
proached him with a spurious nativity.” And Lardner further re¬ 
marks, “when these aspersions were first given out, we cannot say- 
exactly; but they are in Celsus, who wrote against the Christians- 
about the year 150 A. D., and doubtless he had them from the Jews.” 
The Talmud or Jews’ Bible contains this aspersion in a form so 
shocking that it can not be printed here in its exact terms. We 
give Lardner’s translation of it, which is substantially the Talmud’s, 
account with the vulgarity of expression left off. It is the follow¬ 
ing: 

“Upon a certain day when several masters were sitting at the gate 
of the city, two boys passed by before them; one of whom covered 
his head, the other had his head uncovered. Concerning him, who, 
contrary to the rules of modesty, had boldly passed by with his head 
covered, Elieser said he believed he was spurious; Rabbi Joshua 



44 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


said he believed he was the son of a woman set apart; but Rabbi 
Akiba said he was both. The others said to Akiba, why do you 
differ from the rest of your brethern? He answered that he would 
prove the truth of what he had said. Accordingly he went to the 
mother of the boy, whom he found sitting in the market place and 
selling herbs. He then says to her, ‘My daughter, answer me a 
question which I shall put to you, and I assure you of a portion of 
happiness in the world to come.” She answered, “Confirm what 
you say with an oath.” 

Akiba then swore with his lips, but at the same time absolved 
himself in his mind. Then he said to her: “Tell me the origin of 
your son!” which she did, and confessed that it was as he said. 
When he returned to his colleagues and told them the discovery he 
had made, they said: “Great is Akiba, who has corrected the rest of 
the masters!” 

The exact language of the Talmud makes the mother of the boy 
[Mary] say: “Quando ego nuptias celebrarem, laborabam a menstruis. 
Ideoque secessit a me maritus, paranymphus autem meus [occasione 
arrepta] congressus mecum est. Atque ex eo concubitu extitit mihi 
filius liic.” 

This note has been made to show the importance attached by the 
Jews to the “true facts” in the case of Jesus as held among them; 
and that at the trial they were so much exercised on this point that 
they bring it up among the first of their accusations against him, 
which probably was the first public announcement made of this 
charge of spurious birth, and which they afterwards incorporated 
into their Bible, theTalmud. It was at the trial under Pilate, that 
perhaps first public mention was made of this charge of the Jews as 
is given in the Acts drawn up under Pilate. 

The apostles and disciples of Jesus, so far as their names are known 
to us by New Testament mention, do not appear to have been pres¬ 
ent during the discussion. Twelve other Jews, whom Caiaphas calls 
“men of the Greeks,” defended Jesus from this charge—having been 
“present at the espousal” of Joseph and Mary, and Pilate declares 
to the Priests that this story of theirs can not be true “because they 
were betrothed.” 

Such readers as are interested in the merits of this, which seems 
to have so much engaged the thought of Pilate as well as the ac¬ 
cusers of Jesus, will do well to examine the laws of the Jews in re¬ 
gard to betrothal. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


45 


Bethlehem was the cause of the murder of the in¬ 
fants ; thirdly, that thy father Joseph and thy mother 
Mary fled into Egypt because they had no confi¬ 
dence in the people. 

Some of the bystanders, pious men of the Jews, 
say : W e deny that he was born of fornication : for 
we know that Joseph espoused Mary, and he was 
not born of fornication. Pilate says to the Jews 


It may be observed here that Celsus who wrote against the Chris¬ 
tians about A. D. 150 has this charge. Whence he got it must have 
been from the mouth of the Jews, or else from some writing, and if 
the latter, most probably from the Acts of Pilate.. And as they 
make mention of this charge as a false charge. Celsus would not 
mention the Acts as the source of his knowledge. 

The subjoined law may be of interest here. 

If any one has been espoused to a woman as to a virgin, and does 
not afterward find her so to be, let him bring his action, and accuse 
her, and let him make use of such indications to prove his accusa¬ 
tion as he is furnished withal; and let the father or the brother of 
the damsel, or some one that is after them nearest of kin to her, 
defend her. If the damsel obtain a sentence in her favour, that she 
had not been guilty, let her live with her husband that accused her; 
and let him not have any farther power at all to put her away, unless 
she gives him very great occasions of suspicion, and such as can be 
no way contradicted; but for him that brings an accusation and ca¬ 
lumny against his wife in an impudent and rash manner, let him be 
punished by receiving forty stripes save one, and let him pay fifty 
shekels to her father; but if the damsel be convicted, as having been 
corrupted, and is one of the common people, let her be stoned, be¬ 
cause she did not preserve her virginity till she were lawfully married; 
but if she were the daughter of a priest, let her be burnt alive. 

lie that hath corrupted a damsel espoused to another man, in case 
he had her consent, let both him and her be put to death, for they 
are both equally guilty: the man, because he persuaded the woman 
willingly to submit to a most impure action, and to prefer it to law¬ 
ful wedlock. Polity of Moses: Josph. Antiq Hook iv, chap. 8. 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


46 

who said he was of fornication : This story of you. 
is not true, because they were betrothed, as also 
these fellow-countrymen of yours say. Annas and 
Caiaphas say to Pilate: All the multitude of us cry 
out that he was born of fornication, and are not be¬ 
lieved ; these are proselytes and his disciples. And 
Pilate, calling Annas and Caiaphas, says to them : 
What are proselytes?* They say to him: They 
are by birth children of the Greeks, and have now 
become Jews. And those that said that he was 
not born of fornication, viz: Lazarus, Asterius, 
Antonius, James, Amnes, Zeras, Samuel, Isaac. 
Phinees, Crispus, Agrippas and Judas, say: We 
are not proselytes, but are children of the Jews. 


* What are Proselytes ? The term proselyte is not classic Greek. 
It was used exclusively by the Jews. It is found in the Septuagint 
and in the New Testament. 

Pilate, therefore, not being a Jew or acquainted with* terms used 
almost exclusively by the Jews, naturally asks of the priests its mean¬ 
ing, as they seemed to be inclined to make a point on it. While the 
-question seems to come in 'Incidentally —it goes far toward proving 
its authenticity, from the fact of its coming up as a mere incident. 

There were among the Jews two kinds of proselytes—the proselytes 
of the gate, and the proselytes of justice or righteousness. 

The former feared and worshipped the true God without adopting 
circumcision or any of the ceremonies of the law. They were al¬ 
lowed to dwell in the land of Israel, and through holiness might have 
hope of eternal life. 

The latter received circumcision and observed the whole law' of 
Moses, and were admitted to the prerogatives of the people of God. 
In making a report of the trial to Tiberius, it would be necessary for 
Pilate to explain words like proselyte to Tiberius—as it is not likely 
that he being only a classic Greek scholar that he would understand 
a Greek term used exclusively by Jews. 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


47 


•and speak the truth ; for we were present at the be¬ 
trothal of Joseph and Mary. 

And Pilate, calling these twelve men who said 
that he was not born of fornication, says to them : 
I adjure you, by the health of Caesar,* to tell me 
whether it be true that you say, that he was not 
born of fornication. They say to Pilate : We have 
a law against taking oaths, because it is a sin ; but 
they will swear by the health of Caesar that it is 
not as we have said, and we are liable to death.f 
Pilate says to Annas and Caiaphas: Have you 
nothing to answer to this? Annas and Caiaphas 
.say to Pilate : these twelve are believed when they 
•say that he was not born of fornication ; all the 
multitude of us cry out that he was born of forni¬ 
cation, and that he is a sorcerer ; and he says that 
be is the Son of God and a king, and we are not 
believed. 


* This oath , by the fortune of Caesar, was pat to Polycarp , a bishop 
.of Smyrna , by the Roman governor , to try whether he was a Christ - 
Jan, as they were then esteemed who refused to swear that oath. 
Martyr , Polycarp , sect. 9. 

fPilate adjures these friends of Jesus under penalty of death it 
would seem if they committed perjury—to say whether Jesus was 
born of fornication. In chapter 2, of Second Form of the Acts, it 
is stated that these did swear under penalty of being beheaded it 
perjured to the fact of his not being born of fornication. When the 
priests, Annas and Caiaphas, were asked to answer this oath by a 
negative to it, it does not appear that they swore, but evaded so to do. 

There seems to have been enacted by the senate under Augustus a 
Jaw of perjury such as spoken of here ; and that a man was liable to its 
penalty if he swore by Caesar. (See Huidekoper—Judaism and 
Rome, p. 8, note 10.) 



48 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


And Pilate orders all the multitude to go out, ex¬ 
cept the twelve men who said that he was not bom 
of fornication, and he ordered Jesus to be sepa¬ 
rated from them. And Pilate says to them : For 
what reason do they wish to put him to death? 
They say to him : They are angry because he cures 
on the Sabbath. Pilate says: For a good work 
do they wish to put him to death? They say to 
him: Yes. 

Chap. 3. —And Pilate, filled with rage, went out¬ 
side of the Pretorium and said to them: I take the 
sun to witness that I find no fault in this man. The 
Jews answered and said to the procurator : Unless 
this man were an evil-doer, we should not have 
delivered him to thee. And Pilate said: Do you 
take him and judge him according to your law A 
The Jews said to Pilate : It is not lawful for us to- 
put any one to death. Pilaie said : Has God said 
that you are not to put to death, but that I am? 

And Pilate went again into the Pretorium and 
spoke to Jesus privately, and said to him : Art thou, 
the king of the Jews? Jesus answered Pilate r 


*The liberty which Pilate placed in the hands of the Jewish of¬ 
ficials here to take Jesus and stone him to death—not being accepted 
by them plainly shows that they wished not to assume the responsi¬ 
bility of actually putting Him to death. 

It may be seen in the lines following that many of the Jews, and 
among them some of the rulers, as Nicodemus, did not wish the 
death of Jesus. The rulers were doubtless apprehensive of the 
vengeance of the many friends of Jesus among the Jews themselves 
as well perhaps of that of Caesar, should it afterward be shown that 
the high priests had actually murdered Him innocent of any offence^ 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


49 


Dost thou say this of thyself, or have others said it 
to thee of me? Pilate answered Jesus: Am I also 
a Jew? Thy nation and the chief priests have 
given thee up to me. What hast thou done? Jesus 
answered : My kingdom is not of this world ; for 
if my kingdon were of this world, my servants 
would light in order that I should not be given up 
to the Jews: but now my kingdom is not from 
thence. Pilate said to him : Art thou, then, a king? 
Jesus answered him : Thou sayest that I am king. 
Because for this have I been born, and I have 
comet in order that every one who is of the truth 
might hear my voice. Pilate says to him : What 
is truth? Jesus says to him : Truth is from heaven. 
Pilate says : Is truth not upon earth? Jesus says to 
Pilate : Thou seest how those who speak the truth 
are judged by those that have the power upon 
earth. 

Chap. 4 .—And leaving Jesus within the Preto- 
rium, Pilate went out to the Jews and said to them : 
I find no fault in him. The Jews say to him : He 
said, I can destroy this temple, and in three days* 
build it. Pilate says: What temple? The Jews 
say : The one that Solomon built in forty-six years, 
and this man speaks of pulling it down and build¬ 
ing it up in three days. Pilate says to them : I am 
innocent of the blood of this just man. See you 
to it. The Jews say: His blood be upon us and 
upon our children. 

And Pilate, having summoned the elders and 
priests and Levites, said to them privately : Do not 


50 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


act thus, because no charge that you bring against 
him is worthy of death ; for your charge is about 
curing and Sabbath profanation. The elders and 
the priests and the Levites say: If any one speak 
evil against Caesar, is he worthy of death or not? 
Pilate says: He is worthy of death. The Jews 
say to Pilate: If any one speak evil against Caesar, 
he is worthy of death ; but this man has spoken 
evil against God. 

And the procurator ordered the Jews to go out¬ 
side of the Pretorium : and, summoning Jesus, he 
says to him : What shall I do to thee? Jesus*says 
to Pilate : As it has been given to thee. Pilate says : 
How given? Jesus says : Moses and the prophets 
have proclaimed beforehand of my death and re¬ 
surrection. And the Jews, noticing this and hear¬ 
ing it, say to Pilate ; What more wilt thou hear of 
this blasphemy? Pilate says to the Jews : If these 
words be blasphemous, do you take him for the 
blasphemy, and lead him away to your synagogue 
and judge him according to your law. The Jews 
say to Pilate: Our law bears that a man who 
wrongs his fellow-men is worthy to receive forty 
save one : but he that blasphemeth God is to be 
stoned with stones. 

Pilate says to them : .Do you take him and pun¬ 
ish him in whatever way you please. The Jews 
say to Pilate : We wish that he be crucified. Pilate 
says : He is not deserving of crucifixion. 

And the procurator, looking round upon the 
crowds of the Jews standing by, sees many of the 
Jews weeping, and says : All the multitude do not 




THE ACTS OF PILATE. 51 

"wish him to die. The elders of the Jews say : For 
this reason all the multitude of us have come, that 
he should die. Pilate says to the Jews: Why 
should he die? The Jews say: Because he called 
himself the Son of God and King - . 

Chap. 5. —And one Nicodemus, a Jew, stood be¬ 
fore the procurator and said : I beseech your honor 
let me say a few words. Pilate says: Say on. 
Nicodemus says: I said to the elders and the 
priests and Levites, and to all the multitude of the 
Jews in the synagogue. What do you seek to do 
with this man? This man does many miracles and 
strange things, which no one has done or will do. 
Let him go and, do not wish any evil against him. 
If the miracles which he does are of God, they 
will stand ; but if of man, they will come to nothing. 
For assuredly Moses, being sent by God into Egypt, 
did many miracles, which the Lord commanded 
him to do before Pharoah, king of Egypt. And 
there were Jannes and Jambres, servants of Pha¬ 
raoh, and they also did not a few of the miracles 
which Moses did; and the Egyptians took them 
to be gods—this Jannes and Jambres. But, since 
the miracles which they did were not of God. both 
they and those who believed in them were de¬ 
stroyed. And now release this man, for he is not 
deserving of death. 

The Jews say to Nicodemus : Thou hast become 
his disciple, and therefore thou defendest him. Nic¬ 
odemus says to them : Perhaps, too, the procurator 
has become his disciple, because he defends him. 


52 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


Has the emporer not appointed him to this place ot 
dignity? And the Jews were vehemently enraged, 
and gnashed their teeth against Nicodemus. Pilate 
says to them: Why do you gnash your teeth 
against him when you hear the truth? The Jews 
say to Nicodemus: Mayst thou receive his truth 
and his portion. Nicodemus says : Amen, amen 
may I recieve it, as you have said. 

Chap. 6.— One of the Jews, stepping up, asked 
leave of the procurator to say a word. The procu¬ 
rator says : If thou wishest to say anything, say 
on. And the Jew said: Thirty-eight years I lay 
in my bed in great agony. And when Jesus came, 
many demoniacs and many lying ill of various dis¬ 
eases were cured by him. And when Jesus saw 
me he had compassion on me, and said to me : Take 
up thy couch and walk. And I took up my couch 
and walked. The Jews say to Pilate: Ask him 
on what day it was when he was cured. He that 
had been cured says : On a Sabbath. The Jews 
say : Is not this the very thing we said, that on a 
Sabbath he cures and casts out demons? 

And another Jew stepped up and said : I was 
born blind ; I heard sounds, but saw not a face. 
And as Jesus passed by I cried out with a loud 
voice. Pity me, O son of David, And he pitied 
me and put his hands upon my eyes, and I instantly 
received my sight. And another Jew stepped up 
and said : I was crooked and he straightened me 
with a word. And another said : I was a leper, 
and he cured me with a word. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


53 


Chap. 7.—And a woman cried out from a dis¬ 
tance and said: I had an issue of blood, and I 
touched the hem of his garment, and the issue of 
blood, which I had had for twelve years, was 
stopped. The Jews say: We have a law that a 
^woman’s evidence is not received. 

Chap. 8 .— And others, a multitude both of men 
and women, cried out, saving: This man is a 
prophet, and the demons are subject to him. Pilate 
says to them who said that the demons were sub¬ 
ject to him: Why, then, were not your teachers 
also subject to him ? Thev say to Pilate : We do 
not know. And others said ; Hef raised Lazarus 


* 

*But let not a single witness be credited ; but three or two at the 
least, and those such whose testimony is confirmed by their good lives. 
But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on the account of 
the levity and boldness of their sex ; nor let servants be admitted to 
give testimony, on account of the ignobility of their soul; since it is 
probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, 
or fear of punishment. But if any one be believed to have borne 
false witness, let him, when he is convicted, suffer all the very same 
punishments which he against whom he bore witness was to have 
suffered. Josephus, Book IV., chap. S. Polity of Moses. 

I have never observed elsewhere, that in the Jewish government , 
women were not admitted as legal witnesses in courts of justice. 
None of our copies of the Pentateuch say a word of it. It is very 
probable , however , that this -was the exposition of the Scribes and 
Pharisees , and the practice of the Jews in the days of Jesus. 

+The Acts of Pilate record only the more remarkable miracles of 
the Saviour; and these as attested by eye-witnesses under most re¬ 
markable circumstances• It has already been remarked that twelve 
persons among the Jews—called by Caiaphas “Greek proselytes”— 
had the courage to appear in defending Jesus from the charge of be- 



54 


THE ACTS OF FIE ATE. 


from the tomb after he had been dead four days. 
And the procurator trembled, and said to all the 
multitude of the Jews : Why do you wish to pour 
out innocent blood? 

Chap. 9 .— And, having summoned Nicodemus 
and the twelve men that said he was not born of 
lornication, he says to them : What shall I do, be¬ 
cause there is an insurrection among the people? 
They say to him : We know not; let them see to 
it. Again Pilate, having summoned all the multi¬ 
tude of the Jews, says: You know that it is cus¬ 
tomary, at the feast of unleavened bread, to release 
one prisoner to you. I have one condemned pris¬ 
oner in the prison, a murderer named Bar Abbas, 
and this man standing in your presence, Jesus in 
whom I find no fault. Which of them do you 
wish me to release to you? And they cry out: 

J J J 


ing born of fornication. The witnesses who now appear were not 
summoned by Pilate or the priesthood. Called together by the 
common feeling of deepest gratitude—the lame and the leper, the 
blind and the dumb see and hear the infamous treatment of their 
benefactor. It must have startled Caiaphas himself when these 
broke forth from all sides of tluj crowd, as witnesses to the mighty 
deeds of mercy done by him who now is arraigned as a malefactor. 
How keenly flashed every syllable with the lightning of truth from 
the lips of such witnesses. We can not but remark here, that the 
scene as pictured on page 52 of the Acts of Pilate, to him who has 
imagination and conception of the truly natural in expression, noth¬ 
ing can excel the description there given. It is not wonderful that 
such testimony should shake the judgment and judgment seat of 
Pilate. It was mightier than any other that ever fell in the presence 
of any tribunal—the speech of nature, voiced from the hearts whose 
only motives were from love and deepest gratitude. 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


55 

Bar Abbas. Pilate says: What, then, shall we do 
to Jesus, who is called Christ? The Jews say : 
Let him be crucified. And others said : Thou art 
no friend of Csesar’s if thou release this man, be¬ 
cause he called himself the Son of God and King. 
You wish this man, then, to be a king, and not 
Caesar ? 

And Pilate, in a rage, says to the Jews : Always 

has vour nation been rebellious,* and you always 

* 1 


*In this connection we have an item preserved to ns by the Jewish 
Historian that forms matter for thought, and cannot fail to be in¬ 
teresting to some. We give it here to show the ground of a great 
sedition in the early history of the Priesthood—and as a very sug¬ 
gestive scrap of history—in showing how rebellious a spirit dwelt in 
the Jew—from the times of Moses down to the day of Jesus. 

The Sedition of Corah and of the Multitude against Moses , and 

against his Brother, concerning the Priesthood. 

HIS SPEECH. 

Corah, an Hebrew of principal account, both by his family and by 
his wealth, one that was able to speak well, and one that could , 
easily persuade the people by his speeches, saw that Moses was in an 
exceeding great dignity, and was uneasy at it, and envied him on that 
account (he was of the same tribe with Moses, and of kin to him), 
was particularly grieved, because he thought he better deserved that 
honourable post on account of his great riches, and not inferior to 
him in birth. So he raised a clamour against him among the Levifes, 
who were of the same tribe, and especially among his kindred, say¬ 
ing, “that it was a very sad thing that they should overlook Moses, 
while he hunted, after, and paved the way to glory for himself, and 
by ill arts should obtain it, under the pretence of God’s command, 
while, contrary to the laws, he had given the priesthood to Aaron, 
not by the common suffrage of the multitude, but by his own vote, 
as bestowing dignities in a tyrannical way on whom he pleased.” He 
added “that this concealed way of imposing on them was harder to 
be borne than if it had been done by an open force upon them be- 



56 THE ACTS OF PILATE. 

speak against your benefactors. The Jews say: 
What benefactors? He says to them : Your God 
led you out of the land of Egypt from bitter slavery, 
and brought you safe through the sea as through 
dry land, and in the desert fed you with manna 
and gave you quails, and quenched your thirst with 
water from a rock, and gave you a law ; and in all 
these things have you provoked your God to anger, 


cause he did now not only take away their power without consent, 
but even while they are unapprized of his contrivances against them; 
for whosoever is conscious to himself that he deserves any dignity, 
aims to get it by persuasion, and not by an arrogant method of viol¬ 
ence ; but those that believe it impossible to obtain those honours 
justly, they make a show of goodness, and do not introduce force, 
but by cunning tricks grow wickedly powerful: that it was proper 
for the multitude to punish such men, even while they think them¬ 
selves concealed in their designs, and not suffer them to gain strength 
till they have them for their open enemies.” 

“For what account,” added he, “is Moses able to give, why he has 
bestowed the priesthood on Aaron and his sons? for if God had de¬ 
termined to bestow that honour on one of the tribe of Levi, I am 
more worthy of it than he is ; I myself being equal to Moses by my 
family, and superior to him both in riches and in age : but if God 
had determined to bestow it on the eldest tribe, that of Reubel might 
have it most justly ; and thou Dathan, and Abiram, and [On, the 
son of] Peleth, would have it, for these are the oldest men of that 
tribe, and potent on account of their great wealth also.” (See Num¬ 
bers, xvi., Josephus, Antiq. B. IV., chap. ii. 

We are also told by the same authorities that the whole multitude 
of the Jews at one time rebelled—when Moses sent out some persons 
to search out the land of the Canaanites— and further , that when 
those who were sent were returned, after Forty Days, and reported 
that they should not be a match for them, and extolled the strength 
of the Canaanites, the multitude were disturbed, and fell into des¬ 
pair; and were resolved to stone Moses, and to return back again 
into Egypt, and serve the Egyptians. 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


57 


:nnd sought a molten calf. And you exasperated 
your God, and he sought to slay you. And Moses 
prayed for you, and you were not put to death. 
And now you charge me with hating the emperor. 

And, rising up from the tribunal, he sought to go 
out. And the Jews cry out and say: We know 
that Caesar is king, and not Jesus. For assuredly 
the magi brought gifts to him as to a king. And 
when Herod heard from the magi that a king had 
been born, he sought to slay him ; and his father, 
Joseph, knowing this, took him and his mother, 
and they fled into Egypt. And Herod, hearing of 
it, destroyed the children of the Hebrews that had 
been born in Bethlehem. 

And when Pilate heard these words he was 
•afraid ; and, ordering the crowd to keep silence, be¬ 
cause they were crying out, he says to them : So 
this is he whom Herod sought? The Jews say: 
Yes, it is he. And, taking water, Pilate washed his 
hands in the face of the sun, saying : I am inno¬ 
cent of the blood of this just man : see you to it. 
Again the Jews cry out: His blood be upon us and 
upon our children. 

Then Pilate ordered the curtain of the tribunal 
where he was sitting to be drawn, and says to 
Jesus : Thy nation has charged thee with being a 
king. On this account, I sentence thee first to be 
scourged, according to the enactment of venerable 
kings, and then to be fastened on the cross in the 
garden where thou was seized. And let Dysmas 
and Gestas, the two malefactors, be crucified with 
thee. 


5S 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


Chap. 10. —And Jesus went forth out of the Pre- 
torium, and the malefactors with him. And w'hen 
they came to the place they stripped* him of his 
clothes and girded him with a towel, and put a 
crown of thorns on him round his head. And they 
crucified him ; and at the same time, also, they hung 
up the two malefactors along with him. And Jesus 
said ; Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do. And the soldiers parted his clothes among 
them ; and the people stood looking at him. And 
the chief priests and the rulers with them mocked 
him, saying : He saved others ; let him save him¬ 
self. If he be the Son of God, let him come down 
from the cross. And the soldiers made sport of 
him, coming near and offering him vinegar mixed 
with gall, and said : Thou art the king of the Jews : 
save thyself. 

And Pilate, after the sentence, ordered the charge 
against him to be inscribed as a superscription in 
Greek and Latin and Hebrew, according to what 
the Jews had said : He is king of the Jews. 

And one of the malefactors hanging up spoke to 
him, saying: If thou be the Christ, save thyself and 


*None of the Gospels give this account of the stripping of Jesus- 
and girding him with a towel. Most, if not all, of the paintings rep¬ 
resentative of the Crucifixion present Jesus as crucified thus naked,, 
and girt with a towel. So that, after all, we may have a most truth¬ 
ful representation of this last scene in the life of the Saviour, so 
common in almost every household and Christian temple. History,, 
in this case, bears up the pencil of the limner into the light of truth. 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


5S> 


us. And Dysmas answering reproved him, saying : 
Dost thou not fear God, because thou art in the 
same condemnation? And we, indeed, justly, for 
we recieve the tit punishment of our deeds ; but this 
man has done no evil. And he said to Jesus : Re¬ 
member me, Lord, in thy kingdom. And Jesus 
said to him : Amen, amen ; I say to thee, To-day 
shalt thou be with me in Paradise.* 

Chap. 11.— And It was about the sixth hour, and 
there was darkness over the earth until the ninth 
hour, the sun being darkened ; and the curtain of 
the temple was split in the middle. And, crying 
out with a loud voice, Jesus said: Father, baddach 
cfhkid rud, which is, interpreted, Into thy hands I 
commit my spirit. And, having said this, he gave 
up the ghost. And the centurion, seeing what had 
happened, glorified God and said : This was a just 
man. And all the crowds that were present at this 
spectacle, when they saw what had happened, beat 
their breasts and went away. 

And the centurion reported what had happened 


*There is a legend of this man Dysmas which tells us that while 
Jesus, the infant, sojourned in Egypt three years amongst strangers, 
this man Dysmas, the robber at one time made a temporary home 
in his retreat for Joseph and Mary, and the infant child. There are 
many strange meetings in life : and this at the cross of Jesus and 
Dysmas is one of the strangest. He was crucified on the right 
hand of Jesus. The legend hints at the great truth that, an act of 
humanity and kindness though done in a robber’s cave will sometime 
be rewarded, and its legend wander around the world as a lesson to 
teach that a good deed is never lost and may form a step to Paradise. 
(See Dr. Walsh’s “Life of Mary.” p. 319.) 



60 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


to the procurator. And when the procurator and 
his wife heard it they were exceedingly grieved, 
and neither ate nor drank that day. And Pilate 
sent for the Jews and said to them : Have you seen 
what has happened ? And they say: There has 
been an eclipse of the sun in the usual way. 

And his acquaintances were standing at a dis¬ 
tance, and the women who came with him from 
Galilee, seeing these things. And a man named 
Joseph, a councillor from the city of Arimathea, 
who also waited for the kingdom of God, went to 
Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. And he took 
it down and wrapped it in a clean linen, and placed 
it in a tomb hewn out of the rock, in which no one 
had ever lain. 

Chap. 12.— And the Jews, hearing that Joseph 
had begged th^ body of Jesus, sought him and the 
twelve who said that Jesus was not born of fornica¬ 
tion, and Nicodemus and many others who had 
stepped up before Pilate and declared his good 
works. And of all these that were hid Nicodemus 
alone was seen by them, because he was a ruler of 
the Jews. And Nicodemus says to them: IIow 
have you come into the synagogue? The Jews say 
to him : How hast thou come into the synagogue ? 
for thou art a confederate of his, and his portion is 
with thee in the world to come. Nicodemus says : 
Amen, amen. And likewise Joseph also stepped 
out and said to them : Why are you angry against 
me because I begged the body of Jesus? Behold, 
I have put him in my new tomb, wrapping him in 
clean linen : and I have rolled a stone to the door 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


61 


of the tomb. And you have acted not well against 
the just man, because you have not repented of 
crucifying him, but also have pierced him with a 
spear. And the Jews seized Joseph and ordered 
him to be secured until the first day of the week, 
and said to him : Know that the time does not al¬ 
low us to do anything against thee, because the 
Sabbath is dawning; and know that thou shalt not 
be deemed worthy of burial, but we shall give thy 
flesh to the birds of the air. Joseph says to them : 
'These are the words of the arrogant Goliath, who 
reproached the living God and holy David. For 
God has said by the prophet, Vengeance is mine, 
and I will repay, saith the Lord. And now that he 
is uncircumcised in flesh, but circumcised in heart, 
has taken water and washed his hands in the face 
of the sun. saying, I am innocent of the blood of 
this just man ; see ye to it. And you answered 
and said to Pilate : His blood be upon us and upon 
our children. And now I am afraid, lest the wrath 
of God come upon you and upon your children, as 
you have said. And the Jews, hearing these words 
were embittered in their souls, and seized Joseph 
and locked him into a room where there was no 
window ; and guards were stationed at the door, 
and they sealed the door where Joseph was locked 
in. 

And on the Sabbath the rulers of the synagogue 
and the priests and the Levites made a decree that 
all should be found in the synagogue on the first 
day of the week. And, rising up early, all the 
multitude in the synagogue consulted b) r what death 


62 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


they should slay him. And when the Sanhedrin 
was sitting, they ordered him to.be brought with 
much indignity. And, having opened the door, 
they found him not. And all the people were sur¬ 
prised and struck with dismay, because they found 
the seals unbroken, and because Caiaphas had the 
key. And they no longer dared to lay hands upon 
those who had spoken before Pilate in Jesus 1 behalf. 

Chap. 13. —And while they were still sitting in 
the synagogue and wondering about Joseph, there 
came some of the guard whom the Jews had 
begged of Pilate to guard the tomb of Jesus, that 
his disciples might not come and steal him. And 
they reported to the rulers of the synagogue, and 
the priests and Levites what had happened : how 
there had been an earthquake; and we saw an 
angel coming down from heaven, and he rolled 
away the stone from the mouth of the tomb and 
sat upon it; and he shone like snow and like light¬ 
ning. And we were very much afraid, and lay like 
dead men ; and we heard the voice of the angel, 
saying to the women who remained beside the 
tomb. Be not afraid, for I know that you seek 
Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here. He has 
risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the 
Lord lay; and go quickly and tell his disciples that 
he is risen from the dead, and is in Galilee. 

The Jews sa}^: To what women did he speak ; 
The men of the guard say: We know not who 
they were. The Jews say: At what time was this? 
The men of the guard say: At midnight. The 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 63 

Jews say : And wherefore did you not lay hold of 
them? The men of the guard say : We were like 
<lead men from fear, not expecting to see the light 
of day, and how could we lay hold of them? The 
Jews say : As the Lord liveth, we do not believe 
you. The men of the guard say to the Jews : You 
have seen so great miracles in the case of this man, 
and have not believed ; and how can you believe 
us? And assuredly you have done well to swear 
that the Lord liveth, for indeed he does live. Again 
the men of the guard say : We have heard that you 
have locked up the man that begged the body of 
Jesus, and put a seal on the door; and that you 
have opened it and not found him. Do you, then, 
give us the man whom you were guarding, and we 
shall give you Jesus. The Jews say : Joseph has 
gone away to his own city. The men of the guard 
.say to the Jews : And Jesus has risen, as we heard 
from the angel, and is in Galilee. 

And when the Jews heard these words they were 
very much afraid, and said: We must take care 
lest this story be heard, and all incline to Jesus 
And the Jews called a council, and paid down a 
considerable money and gave it to the soldiers, 
saying: Say, while he slept, his disciples came by 
night and stole him ; and if this come to the ears of 
the procurator we shall persuade him and keep you 
out of trouble. And they took it, and said as they 
had been instructed. 

Chap. 14 .— And Phinees, a priest, and Adas, a 
teacher, and Haggai, a Levite. came down from 


G 4 THE ACTS OF PILATE. 

Galilee to Jerusalem, and said to the rulers of the 
synagogue, and the priests and the Levites : We 
saw Jesus and his disciples sitting on the mountain 
called Mamilch; and he said to his disciples, Go 
into all the world and preach to every creature r 
he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, 
and he that believeth not shall be condemned. And 
these signs shall attend those who have believed : 
in my name they shall cast out demons, speak new 
tongues, take up serpents , and if they drink any 
deadly thing it shall by no means hurt them ; they 
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall be well. 
And while Jesus was speaking to his disciples we 
saw him taken up into heaven. 

The elders and priests and Levites say: Give 
glory to the God of Israel, and confess to him 
whether you have heard and seen those things, of 
which you have given us an account. And those 
who had given the account said: As the Lord 
liveth, the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob, we heard these things, and saw him taken 
up into heaven. The elders and the priests and 
the Levites say to them : Have you come to give 
us this announcement, or to offer prayer to God? 
And they say : To offer prayer to God. The elders 
and the chief priests and the Levites sav to them ; 
If you have come to offer prayer to God why, then* 
have you told these idle tales in the presence of all 
the people? Says Phinees, the priest, and Adas, 
the teacher, and Haggai, the Levite, to the rulers 
of the synagogues, and the priests and the Levites: 
If what we have said and seen be sinfnl. behold. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


65 


we are before you; do to us as seems good in your 
eyes. And they took the law and made them 
swear upon it not to give any more an account of 
these matters to any one. And they gave them to 
eat and drink and sent them out of the city, having 
given them also money, and three men with them ; 
and they sent them away to Galilee. 

And these men, having gone into Galilee, the 
chief priests and the rulers of the synagogue, and 
the elders came together in the synagogue and 
locked the door, and lamented with great lamenta¬ 
tion, saying: Is this a miracle that has happened 
in Israel? And Annas and Caiaphas said: Why 
are you so much moved? Why do you weep? Do 
you not know that his disciples have given a sum 
of gold to the guards of the tomb, and have in¬ 
structed them to say that an angel came down and 
rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb ? 
And the priests and elders said: Be it that his di¬ 
sciples have stolen his body ; how is it that the life 
has come into his body ; and that he is going about 
in Galilee? And they, being unable to give an 
answer to these things, said, after great hesitation : 
It is not lawful for us to believe the uncircumcised. 

Chap.15.— And Nicodemus stood up, and stood 
before the Sanhedrin saying : You say well; you 
are not ignorant, you people of the Lord, of these 
men that come down from Galilee, that they fear 
God, and are men of substance, haters of covet¬ 
ousness, men of peace; and they have declared 
with an oath, we saw Jesus upon the mountain 


66 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


Mamilch with his disciples, and he taught what we 
heard from him, and we saw him taken up into 
heaven. And no one asked them in what form he 
went up. For assuredly, as the book of the Holy 
Scriptures taught us, Helias also was taken up into 
heaven, and Elissseus cried out with a loud voice, 
and Helias threw his sheepskin upon Elissasus, and 
Elissasus threw his sheepskin upon the Jordan, and 
crossed and came into Jericho. And the children 
of the prophets met him and said, O Elissaeus, 
where is thy master Helias? And he said, He has 
been taken up into heaven. And they said to 
Elissasus, Has not a spirit seized him, and thrown 
him upon one of the mountains ? But let us take 
our servants with us and seek him. And they per¬ 
suaded Elissasus, and he went away with them. 
And they sought him three days, and did not find 
him ; and they knew that he had been taken up. 
And now listen to me, and let us send into every 
district of Israel and see, lest perchance, Christ has 
been taken up by a spirit and thrown upon one of 
the mountains. And this proposal pleased all. And 
they sent into every district of Israel and sought 
Jesus, and did not find him ; but they found Joseph 
in Arimathea, and no one dared to lay hands on 
him. 

And they reported to the elders and the priests 
and the Levites : We have gone round to every dis¬ 
trict of Israel, and have not found Jesus ; but Jos¬ 
eph we have found in Arimathea. And hearing* 
about Joseph they were glad and gave glory to the 
God of Israel. And the rulers of the svnagogue, 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


67 


and the priests and the Levites, having held a coun¬ 
cil as to the manner in which they should meet 
with Joseph, took a piece of paper and wrote to 
Joseph as follows: 

Peace to thee ! We know that we have sinned 
against God, and against thee ; and we have prayed 
to the God of Israel that thou shouldst deign to 
come to thy fathers and to thy children, because we 
all have been grieved. For, having opened the 
door, we did not find thee. And we know that we 
have counseled evil counsel against thee ; but the 
Lord has defended thee, and the Lord himself has 
scattered to the winds our counsel against thee, O 
honorable father Joseph. 

And they chose from all Israel seven men, friends 
of Joseph, whom, also, Joseph himself was ac¬ 
quainted with ; and the rulers of the synagogue, 
and the priests and the Levites say to them : Take 
notice; if, after recieving our letter he read it, 
know that he will come with you to us. But if he 
do not read it, know that he is ill-disposed towards 
us. And, having saluted him in peace, return to us. 
And having blest the men, they dismissed them. 
And the men came to Joseph and did reverence to 
him, and said to him : Peace to thee ! And he said : 
Peace to you and to all the people of Israel! And 
they gave him the roll of the letter. And Joseph, 
having received it, read the letter and rolled it up. 
and blessed God and said : Blessed be the Lord 
God, who has delivered Israel, that they should not 
shed innocent blood ; and blessed be the Lord, who 
sent out his angel and covered me under his wings. 


68 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


And he set a table for them : and they ate and drank: 
and slept there. 

And they rose up early and prayed. And Joseph 
saddled his ass and set out with the men : and they 
came to the holy city Jerusalem. And all the 
people met Joseph and cried out: Peace to thee in 
thy coming in! And he said to all the people: 
Peace to you ! and he kissed them. And the people 
prayed with Joseph, and they were astonished at 
the sight of him. And Nicodemus received him 
into his house and made a great feast, and called 
Annas and Caiaphas and the elders and the priests 
and the Levites to his house. And they rejoiced, 
eating and drinking with Joseph ; and, after singing 
hymns, each proceeded to his own house. But 
Joseph remained in the house of Nicodemus. 

And on the following day, which was the prepa¬ 
ration, the rulers of the synagogue and the priests 
and the Levites went early to the house of Nicode¬ 
mus : and Nicodemus met them and said : Peace 
to you ! And they said : Peace to thee and to Jos¬ 
eph, and to all thy house and to all the house of 
Joseph! And he brought them into his house. 
And all the Sanhedrin sat down, and Joseph sat 
down between Annas and Caiaphas : and no one 
dared to say a word to him. And Joseph said : 
Why have you called me ? And they signaled to 
Nicodemus to speak to Joseph. And Nicodemus, 
opening his mouth, said to Joseph: Father, thou 
knowest that the honorable teachers and the priests 
and the Levites seek to learn a word from thee. 
And Joseph said : Ask. And Annas and Caiaphas,. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


69 


having taken the law, made Joseph swear, saying: 
Give glory to the God of Israel, and give him con¬ 
fession ; for Achar, being made to swear by the 
prophet Jesus, did not forswear himself, but de¬ 
clared unto him all, and did not hide a word from 
him. Do thou also, accordingly, not hide from us 
to the extent of a word. And Joseph said : I shall 
not hide from you one word. And they said to 
him: With grief were we grieved because thou 
didst beg the body of Jesus and wrap it in clean 
linen and lay it in a tomb. And on account of this 
we secured thee in a room where there was no win¬ 
dow ; and we put locks and seals upon the doors, 
and guards kept watching where thou wast locked 
in. And on the first day of the week we opened 
and found thee not, and were grieved exceedingly ; 
and astonishment fell upon all the people of the 
Lord until yesterday. And now relate to us what 
happened to thee. 

And Joseph said: On the preparation, about the 
tenth hour, you locked me up, and I remained all 
the Sabbath. And at midnight, as I was standing 
and praying, the room where you locked me in was 
hung up by the four corners, and I saw a light like 
lightning into my eyes. And I was afraid and fell 
to the ground. And some one took me by the 
hand and removed me from the place where I had 
fallen ; and moisture of water was poured from my 
head even to my feet, and a smell of perfumes came 
about my nostrils. And he wiped my face and 
kissed me, and said to me, Fear not, Joseph : open 
thine eyes and see who it is that speaks to thee. 


70 


THE ACTS OF PIE ATE. 


And, looking up, I saw Jesus. And I trembled 
and thought it was a phantom ; and I said the com¬ 
mandments, and he said them with me. Even so 
you are not ignorant that a phantom, if it meet any¬ 
body and hear th« commandments, takes to flight. 
And seeing that he said them with me, I said to 
him. Rabbi Helias. And he said to me, I am not 
Helias. And I said to him, Who art thou, my 
lord? And. he said to me, I am Jesus whose body 
thou didst beg from Pilate ; and thou didst clothe 
me with clean linen, and didst put a napkin on my 
face, and didst lay me in thy new tomb, and didst 
roll a great stone to the door of the tomb. And I 
said to him that was speaking to me, show me the 
place where I laid thee. And he carried me away 
and showed me the place where I laid him ; and 
the linen cloth was lying in it, and the napkin for 
his face. And I knew that it was Jesus. And he 
took me by the hand and placed me, though the 
doors were locked, in the middle of my house, and 
led me away to my bed and said to me, Peace to 
thee! And he kissed me and said to me, For 
forty days go not forth out of thy house ; for, be¬ 
hold, I go to my brethern in Galilee. 

Chap. 16 . —And the rulers of the synagogue,, 
and the priests and the Levites when they heard 
these words from Joseph, became as dead, and fell 
to the ground, and fasted until the ninth hour. 
And Nicodemus, along with Joseph, exhorted An¬ 
nas and Caiaphas, the priests and the Levites, say¬ 
ing : Rise up and stand upon your feet, and taste 


THE ACTS OF PIE ATE. 


71 


bread and strengthen your souls, because to-mor¬ 
row is the Sabbath of the Lord. And they rose 
up and prayed to God, and ate and drank, and de¬ 
parted every man to his own house. 

And on the Sabbath our teachers and the priests 
and Levites sat questioning each other and saying: 
What is this wrath that has come upon us? for we 
know his father and mother. Levi, a teacher, says : 
I know that his parents fear God, and do not with¬ 
draw themselves from the prayers, and give the 
tithes thrice a year. And when Jesus was born his 
parents brought him to this place and gave sacri¬ 
fices and burnt offerings to God. And when the 
great teacher, Symeon, took him into his arms, he 
said, Now thou sendest away thy servant, Lord, 
according to thy word, in peace ; for mine eyes 
have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared 
before the face of all the peoples ; a light for the 
revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy 
people Israel. And Symeon blessed them, and 
said to Mary his mother. I give thee good news 
about this child. And Mary said, It is well, my 
lord. And Symeon said to her, It is well; behold, 
he lies for the fall and the rising again of many in 
Israel, and for a sign spoken against; and of thee 
thyself a sword shall go through the soul, in order 
that the reasoning of many hearts may be revealed. 

They say to the teacher Levi: How knowest 
thou these things ? Levi says to them : Do you not 
know that from him I learned the law? The San¬ 
hedrin say to him : We wish to see thy father. 
And they sent for his father. And they asked him. 


72 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


and he said to them : Why have you not believed 
my son? The blessed and just Symeon himself 
taught him the law. The Sanhedrin says to Rabbi 
Levi: Is the word that you have said true ? And 
he said : It is true. And the rulers of the syna¬ 
gogue, and the priests and the Levites said to them¬ 
selves : Come, let us send into Gallilee to the three 
men that came and told about his teaching and his 
taking up, and let them tell us how they saw him 
taken up. And this saying pleased all. And they 
sent away the three men who had already gone 
away into Galilee with them : and they say to them : 
Say to Rabbi Adas and Rabbi Phinees and Rabbi 
Haggai, Peace to you and all who are with you ! 
A great inquiry having taken place in the Sanhe¬ 
drin, we have been sent to you to call you to this 
holy place, Jerusalem. 

And the men set out into Galilee and found them 
sitting and considering the law : and they saluted 
them in peace. And the men who were in Galilee 
said to those who had come to them : Peace unto 
all Israel! And they said : Peace to you ! And 
they again said to them: Why have you come? 
And those who had been sent said : The Sanhedrin 
call you 10 the holy city Jerusalem. And when 
the men heard that they were sought by the Sanhe¬ 
drin they prayed to God, and reclined with the 
men and ate and drank, and rose up and set out in 
peace to Jerusalem. 

And on the following day the Sanhedrin sat in 
the synagogue, and asked them, saying: Did you 
really see Jesus sitting on the mountain Mamilch 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


73 


teaching his eleven disciples, and did you see him 
taken up? And the men answered them and said : 
As we saw him taken up, so also we said. 

Annas says : Take them away from one another 
and let us see whether their account agrees. And 
they took them away from one another. And first 
they call Adas and say to him : How didst thou see 
Jesus taken up? Adas says: While he was yet 
sitting on the mountain Mamilch and teaching his 
disciples, we saw a cloud overshadowing both him 
and his disciples. And the cloud took him up into 
heaven, and his disciples lay upon their faces upon 
the earth. And they call Phinees, the priest, and 
ask him also, saying: How didst thou see Jesus 
taken up? And he spoke in like manner. And 
they again asked Haggai, and he spoke in like 
manner. And the Sanhedrin said: -The law of 
Moses holds : At the mouth of two or three every 
word shall be established. Buthem, a teacher, says : 
It is written in the law, And Enoch walked with 
God, and is not, because God took him. Jairus, a 
teacher, said: And the death of holy Moses we 
have heard of, and have not seen it; for it is written 
in the law of the Lord, and Moses died from the 
mouth ot the Lord, and no man knoweth of his sep¬ 
ulchre unto this day. And Rabbi Levi said : Why 
did Rabbi Symeon say, when he saw Jesus, “Be¬ 
hold, he lies for the fall and rising again of many 
in Israel, and for a sign spoken against?” And 
Rabbi Isaac said : It is written in the law, Behold, 
I send my messenger before thy face, who shall go 


74 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


before thee to keep thee in every good way, because 
my name has been called upon him. 

Then Annas and Caiaphas said: Rightly have 
you said what is written in the law of Moses, that 
no one saw the death of Enoch, and no one has 
named the death of Moses ; but Jesus was tried 
before Pilate, and we saw him receiving blows and 
spittings on his face, and the soldiers put about him 
a crown of thorns, and he was scourged and re¬ 
ceived sentence from Pilate, and was crucified upon 
the Cranium, and two robbers with him ; and they 
gave him to drink vinegar with gall, and Longinus,, 
the soldier pierced his side with a spear ; and Jos¬ 
eph, our honorable father, begged his body, and he 
says he is risen ; and as the three teachers say, We 
saw him taken np into heaven ; and Rabbi Levi 
has given evidence of what w^as said by Rabbi 
Symeon, and that he said, Behold, he lies for the 
fall and rising again of many in Irsael, and for a 
sign spoken against. And all the teachers said to- 
all the people of the Lord: If this was from 
the Lord, and is wonderful in your eyes, knowing 
you shall know, O house of Jacob, that it is written, 
Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree. And 
another scripture teaches : The gods which have not 
made the heaven and the earth shall be destroyed.. 
And the priests and the Levites said to each other r 
If this memorial be until the year that is called 
Jobel, know that it shall endure forever, and he 
hath raised for himself a new people. Then the 
rulers of the synagogue, and the priests and the 
Levites, announced to all Israel, saying: Cursed is- 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


75 

that man who shall worship the work of man’s 
hand, and cursed is the man who shall worship the 
creatures more than the Creator. And all the 
people said, Amen, amen. 

And all the people praised the Lord, and said : 
Blessed is the Lord, who hath given rest to his 
people Israel, according to all that he hath spoken ; 
there hath not fallen one word of every good word 
of his that he spoke to Moses, his servant. May 
the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our 
fathers ; let him not destroy us. And let him not 
destroy us, that we may incline our hearts to him, 
that we may walk in all his ways, that we may 
keep his commandments and his judgments which 
he commanded to our fathers. And the Lord shall 
be for a king over all the earth in that day ; and 
there shall be one Lord, and his name one. The 
Lord is our king ; he shall save us. There is none 
like thee, O Lord. Great art thou, O Lord, and 
great is thy name. By thy power heal us, O Lord, 
and we shall be healed ; save us, O Lord, and we 
shall be saved, because we are thy lot and heritage. 
And the Lord will not leave his people, for his 
great name’s sake ; for the Lord has begun to make 
us into his people. 

And all, having sung praises, went away each 
man to his own house glorifying God ; for his is the 
glory forever and ever. Amen. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 

(,SECOND GREEK FORM.) 


Chap. 1 . — Our Lord Jesus Christ having wrought 
in Judea many and great and extraordinary mir¬ 
acles, and on account of this, being hated by the 
Hebrews, while Pilate was procurator in Jerusalem, 
and Annas and Caiaphas high priests, there came 
of the Jews to the chief priests, Judas, Levi, Neph- 
thalim, Alexander, Syrus, and many others, speak¬ 
ing against Christ. And these chief priests sent 
them away to say these things to Pilate also. And 
they went away, and said to him : A man walks 
about in this city whose father is called Joseph, and 
his mother Mary ; and he calls himself king and 
Son of God: and being a Jew, he overturns the 
Scriptures, and does away with the Sabbath. Pilate 
then asked, in order to learn from them in what 
manner he did away with the Sabbath. And they 
answered, saying: He cures the sick on the Sab¬ 
bath. Pilate says: If he makes the sick whole, he 
does no evil. They say to him : If he effected the 
cures properly, small would be the evil; but by 
using magic he does these things, and by having 
the demons on his side. Pilate says: To cure a 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 77 

person that is ill is not a diabolic work, but a grace 
from God. 

The Hebrews said: We beseech your highness 
to summon him, in order that thou mayst make ac¬ 
curate inquiry into what we say. Pilate therefore^ 
throwing off his cloak, gave it to one of his officers, 
saying: Go away, and show this to Jesus, and say 
to him, Pilate the procurator calls thee to come be¬ 
fore him. The officer accordingly went away, and 
finding Jesus, summoned him, having unfolded on 
the ground also Pilate’s mantle, and urged him to 
walk upon it. And the Hebrews, seeing this, and 
being greatly enraged, came to Pilate murmuring 
against him, how he had deemed Jesus worthy of 
so great an honor. 

And he, having inquired of the officer who had 
been sent, how he had done so, the officer answered : 
When thou didst send me to the Jew Alexander, I 
came upon Jesus entering the gate of the city, sit¬ 
ting upon an ass. And I saw that the Hebrews 
spread their garments in the way, and the ass 
walked upon the garments ; and others cut branches, 
and they went forth to meet him, and cried out, 
Hosanna in the highest! Thus, therefore, it was 
necessary for me also to do. 

The Jews, hearing these words, said to him: 
How didst thou, being a Roman, know what was 
said by the Hebrews? The officer answered: I 
asked one of the Hebrews, and he told me these 
things. Pilate said : What means Hosanna? The 
Jews said: Save us, O Lord. Pilate answered : 
Since you confess that your children said so, how 


78 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


now do you bring charges, and say against Jesus 
what you do say? The Jews were silent, and had 
nothing to answer. 

Now, as Jesus was coming to Pilate, the soldiers 
of Pilate adored him. And others also were stand¬ 
ing before Pilate holding standards. And as Jesus 
was coming,'the standards also bowed down, and 
adored him, As Pilate, therefore, was wondering 
at what had happened, the Jews said to him : My 
lord, it was not the standards that adored Jesus, 
but the soldiers who were holding them carelessly. 

Pilate says to the rulers of the synagogue : Choose 
twelve powerful men, and give them the standards, 
so that they may hold them firmly. And this hav¬ 
ing taken place, Pilate ordered the officer to take 
Jesus outside, and bring him in again. And as he 
was coming in, the standards again bowed down, 
and adored him. Pilate therefore wondered greatly. 
But the Jews said ; He is a magician, and through 
that he does these things. 


Chap. 2.— Pilate says to Jesus: Hearest thou 
what these testify against thee, and answerest thou 
not? And Jesus answered and said: Every man 
has power to speak either good or bad, as he 
wishes; these also, therefore, having power, say 
what they wish. 

The Jews said to him: What have we to say 
about thee? First, that thou wast begotten from 
sin; second, that on account of thee, when thou 
wast born, the infants were murdered ; third, that 


THE ACTS OF PIE ATE. 


79 


thy father and thy mother fled into Egypt, because 
they had no confidence in the people. 

To these the Jews who were there present, God¬ 
fearing men, answered and said: We say that his 
birth is not from sin ; for we know that Joseph re¬ 
ceived into keeping his mother Mary, according 
to the practice of betrothal. * Pilate said: Conse¬ 
quently you lie who say his birth is from sin. They 
say again to Pilate : All the people testify that he is 
a magician. The God-fearing Jews answered and 
said : We also were at the betrothal of his mother, 
and we are Jews, and know all of his daily life ; 
but that he is a magician, that we not know. And 
the Jews that thus said were these: Lazarus, As- 
tharius, James, Zaras, Samuel, Isaac, Phinees, Cris- 
pus, Dagrippus, Amese and Judas. 

Pilate therefore says to them: By the life of 
Caesar, I wish you to swear whether the birth of 
this man is without sin.* They answered : Our law 


*In note 3, chap. 2, of First Greek Form we have already adverted 
to this charge of the priests as to the birth of Jesus; and mentioned 
the fact that a penalty of forty stripes and a fine of fifty shekels of 
silver (31 dollars) was imposed upon those bringing a false charge of 
fornication against a man’s wife or daughter. 

It may be added here that it is possible that Pilate insisted upon 
proof of this charge, and took an uncommon interest in it from the 
fact that just such a report had been made as to his own birth:—and 
the legend still exists that he was the natural son of the king of May- 
•ence and an illegitimate. It is singular that he seems to have pressed 
this unimportant point so far, unless he had some feeling in the mat¬ 
ter, and that feeling appears here to have been based on personal 
grounds. 

Moreover he knew how irresponsible a man must be of any wrong 



SO 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


lays down that we are to swear not at all, because 
an oath is great sin. Notwithstanding, by the life 
of Caisar we swear that his birth is without sin,, 
and if we lie, order us all to be beheaded. And 
when they had thus spoken, the Jews that were 
bringing the charge answered Pilate, and said: 
And dost thou believe these twelve single Jews 
more than all the multitude and us, who know for 
certain that he is a magician and blasphemer, and 
that he names himself Son of God? 

Then Pilate ordered them all to go forth out of 
the Pretorium except the said twelve alone. And 
when this had been done, Pilate says to them pri¬ 
vately ; As to this man, it appears that from envy 
and madness the Jews wish to murder him : for of 
one thing—that he does away with the Sabbath— 
they accuse him ; but he then does a good work, 
because he cures the sick. For this, sentence of 
death is not upon the man. The twelve also say 
to him : Assuredly, my lord, it is so. 

Chap. 3. —Pilate therefore went outside in rage 
and anger, and says to Annas and Caiaphas, and 
to the crowd who brought Jesus : I take the sun to 
witness that I find no fault in this man. The crowd 
answered : If he were not a sorcerer, and a magi¬ 
cian, and a blasphemer, we should not have brought 
him to your highness. Pilate said: Try him your- 


of this character attaching to ones birth; and under this feeling de¬ 
termined to push the point to its extremity and impose the penalty 
in case of finding a false accusation against the mother of Jesus. 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


81 


selves. The Jews said : Our law permits to put no 
man to death. Pilate says: If you are unwilling 
to put him to death, how much more am I. 

Then Pilate returned to the palace, and says to 
Jesus: Tell me, art thou the king of the Jews? 
Jesus answered: Dost thou say this, or have the 
other Jews said this to thee, that thou mightst ques¬ 
tion me? Pilate said : Thou dost not think I am a 
Hebrew? I am not a Hebrew. Thy people and 
the chief priests have delivered thee into my hands ; 
and tell me if thou art king of the Jews? Jesus 
answered : My kingdom is not of this world ; for if 
my kingdom were in this world, my soldiers would 
not be unconcerned at my being seized : wherefore 
my kingdom is not in this world. Pilate said : But 
art thou king? Jesus said: Thou hast said: for 
this was I born, to bear witness of the truth ; and if 
any one be a man of the truth, he believes my word, 
and does it. Pilate says : What is the truth? Jesus 
answered : The truth is from the heavens. Pilate 
says: On earth, then, is there no truth? Christ 
says : I am the truth ; and how is the truth judged 
on earth by those that have earthly power! 

Chap. 4. —Pilate therefore, leaving Christ alone, 
went outside, and says to the Jews: I find no fault 
in this man. The Jews answered : Let us tell your 
highness what he said. He said, I am able to de¬ 
stroy the temple of God, and in three days to build 
it. Pilate says : And what temple did he say that 
he was to destroy? The Hebrews say : The temple 
of Solomon, which Solomon built in forty-six years. 


82 


THE ACTS OF PIE ATE. 


Pilate says privately to the chief priests and the 
scribes and the Pharisees : I entreat you, do noth¬ 
ing evil against this man ; for if you do evil against 
him, you will do unjustly: for it is not just that 
such a man should die, who has done great good to 
many men. They said to Pilate: If, my lord, he 
who has dishonored Cassar is worthy of death, how 
much more this man who dishonors God ! 

Then Pilate dismissed them, and they all went 
outside. Thereupon he sa} r s to Jesus ; JWhat dost 
thou wish that I shall do to thee? Jesus says to 
Pilate : Do to me as is determined. Pilate says : 
How is it determined? Jesus answered : Moses and 
the prophets wrote about me being crucified, and 
rising again. The Hebrews hearing this, said to 
Pilate: Why do you seek to hear a greater insult 
out of him against God ? Pilate says : These words 
are not an insult against God, since they are written 
in the books of the prophets. The Hebrews said : 
Our Scripture says, If a man offend against a man, 
that is to say, if he insult him, he is worthy to re¬ 
ceive forty strokes with a rod ; but if any one insult 
God, to be stoned. 

Then came a messenger from Procle, the wife of 
Pilate, to • him ; and the message said : Take care 
that thou do not agree that any evil should happen 
to Jesus the good man ; because during this night I 
have seen fearful dreams on account of him. And 
Pilate spoke to the Hebrews, saying: If you hold 
as insult against God the words which you declare 
Jesus to have spoken, take and judge him your¬ 
selves according to your law. The Jews said to 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


83 


Pilate : We wish that you should crucify him. Pilate 
says : This is not good. 

And Pilate, turning towards the people, saw many 
weeping, and said: To me it seems that it is not 
the wish of all the people that this man should die. 
The priests and the scribes sav: We on this ac¬ 
count have brought all the people, that thou mightst 
have full conviction that all wish his death. Pilate 
says: For what evil hath he done. The Hebrews 
said: He says that he is a king, and the Son of 
God. 

Chap. 5 .—A God-fearing Jew. therefore, Nico- 
demus by name, stood up in the midst, and said to 
Pilate : I entreat your highness to permit me to say 
a few words. Say on, said Pilate. Nicodemus 
says : I, being present in the synagogue, said to the 
priests, and the Levites, and the scribes, and the 
people, What have you to say against this man? 
This man does many miracles, such as man has 
never yet done nor will do. Let him go, therefore ; 
and if indeed what he does be from God. it will 
stand , but if from man, it will be destroyed. Just 
as happened also when God sent Moses into Egypt, 
and Pharoah king of Egypt told him to do a mira¬ 
cle, and he did it. Then Pharoah had also two 
magicians, Jannes and Jambres ; and they also did 
miracles by the use of magic art, but not such as 
Moses did. And the Egyptians held these magi¬ 
cians to be gods ; but because they were not from 
God, what they did was destroyed. This Jesus, 
then, raised up Lazarus, and he is alive. On this 


84 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


account I entreat thee, my lord, by no means to al¬ 
low this man to be put to death. 

The Hebrews were enraged against Nicodemus, 
and said: Mayst thou receive the truth of Jesus 
and have a portion with him. Nicodemus says : 
Amen, amen ; be it to me as you say. 

Chap. G.—And when Nicodemus had thus spoken 
another Hebrew rose up, and said to Pilate : I beg 
of thee, my lord Pilate, hear me also. Pilate an¬ 
swered : Say what thou wishest. The Hebrew 
says: I lay sick in bed thirty-eight years ; and 
when he saw me he was grieved, and said to me, 
Rise, take up thy couch, and go into thine house. 
And while he was saying the word to me, I rose 
and walked about. The Hebrews say: Ask him 
on what day of the week this happened. He says : 
On Sabbath. The Jews said: And consequently 
we say truly, that he does not keep the Sabbath. 

Another, again, standing in the midst, said: I 
was born blind ; and as Jesus was going along the 
road, I cried to him, saying, Have mercy upon me. 
Lord, thou son of David. And he took clay, and 
anointed mine eyes ; and straightway I received my 
sight. Another said : I was crooked ; and seeing 
him. I cried, Have mercy upon me, O Lord. And 
he took me by the hand, and I was immediately 
raised. Another said : I was a leper, and he healed 
me merely by a word. 

Chap. 7 .-— -There was found there also a woman 
named Veronica, and she said : Twelve years I was 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


85 


in an issue of blood, and I only touched the edge 
of his garment, and directly I was cured. The 
Jews say : Our law does not admit the testimony of 
a woman. 

Chap. 8 . —Other men cried: This man is a 
prophet, and the demons are afraid of him. Pilate 
says: And how were the demons not at all thus 
«afraid of your parents also ? They say: We do 
not know. Others, again, said : Lazarus, after hav¬ 
ing been four days in the tomb, he raised by a single 
word. Pilate therefore, hearing of the raising of 
Lazarus, was afraid, and said to the people ; Why 
do you wish to shed the blood of a just man. 

Chap. 9.—Then he summoned Nicodemus and 
the twelve God-fearing Jews, and said to them: 
What do you say that I should do? because the 
people are in commotion. They say : We do not 
know: do as thou wilt; but what the people do, 
they do unjustly, in order to kill him. Pilate again 
went outside, and said to the people: You know 
that in the feasts of unleavened bread it is custom¬ 
ary that I free on your account one of the criminals 
kept in custody. I have, then, one malefactor in 
the prison, a robber named Bar Abbas. I have 
also Jesus, who has never done any evil. Which 
of the two, then, do you wish that I release to you? 
The people answered: Release to us Bar Abbas. 
Pilate says: What, then, shall I do with Jesus? 
They say : Let him be crucified. Again, others of 
them cried out: If thou release Jesus thou art no 


86 


THE ACTS OF PIE ATE. 


friend of Csesar. because he calls himself Son of 
God, and king. And if thou free him, he becomes 
a king, and will take Caesar’s kingdom. 

Pilate, therefore, was enraged, and said : Always 
has your nation been devilish and unbelieving ; and 
ever have you been adversaries to your benefactors. 
The Hebrews say : And who were our benefactors ? 
Pilate says : God. who freed you out of the land of 
Pharaoh and brought you through the Red Sea as* 
upon dry land, and fed you with quails, and gave 
you water out of the dry rocks, and who gave you 
a law, which, denying God, you broke; and if 
Moses had not stood and entreated God, you would 
have perished by a bitter death. All these, then, 
you have forgotten.—Thus, also, even now, you say 
that I do not at all love Csesar, but hate him, and 
wish to plot against his kingdom. 

And having thus spoken, Pilate rose up from the 
throne with anger, wishing to flee from them. The 
Jews therefore cried out, saying: We wish Caesar 
to be king over us, not Jesus, because Jesus re¬ 
ceived gifts from the magi. And Herod also heard 
this—that there was going to be a king—and wished 
to put him to death, and for this purpose sent and 
put to death all the infants that were in Bethlehem. 
And on this account also his father. Joseph, and 
his mother fled from fear of him into Egypt. 

So then, Pilate hearing this, silenced all the 
people, and said: This, then, is the Jesus whom 
Plerod then sought, that he might put him to death? 
They say to him : Yes. Pilate, therefore, havings 
ascertained that he was of the jurisdiction ot Herod,. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


ST 


as being derived of the race of the Jews, sent Jesus 
to him. And Herod, seeing him, rejoiced greatly, 
because he had been long desiring to see him, hear¬ 
ing of the miracles which he did. He put on him, 
therefore, white garments.* Then he began to 
question him. But Jesus did not give him an answer. 
And Herod, wishing to see also some miracle or 
other done by Jesus, and not seeing it, and also 
because he did not answer him a single word, sent 
him back again to Pilate. Pilate, seeing this, ordered 
his officers to bring water. Washing, then, his hands 
with the water he said to the people : I am innocent 
of the blood of this good man. See you to it, that 
he is unjustly put to death, since neither I have 
found fault in him, nor Herod ; for because of this 
he has sent him back again to me. The Jews say : 
His blood be upon us and upon our children. 

Then Pilate sat down upon his throne to pass 


*We learn from Matthew’s Gospel that the soldiers stripped Jesus 
and put on him a scarlet robe. And after they had mocked him they 
took the robe off him and put his own raiment on him, and led him 
away to crucify him. Matt, xxvii: 2, 8, 31. 

From Mark we learn that the soldiers clothed him with purple. 
Mark xv:i7. 

Luke states that, Herod, with his men of war, set him at naught 
and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him 
again to Pilate. Luke xxiii: 11. 

From John’s Gospel we learn that the soldiers platted a crown of 
thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe. 
John xix: 2. 

The Acts of Pilate state that, white garments were put on Jesus by 
Herod. And Canon Farrar in the ixth edition of the Encyclopaedia 
uses the phrase “white robe.” M. de Munkacsy has followed this in 
his painting, arraying Jesus in a white robe. 



88 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


sentence. He gave order, therefore, and Jesus 
came before him. And they brought a crown of 
thorns and put it on his head, and a reed into his 
right hand. Then he passed sentence, and said to 
him : Thy nation says and testifies against thee 
that thou wishest to be a king. Therefore. I de¬ 
cree that they shall beat thee first with a rod forty 
strokes, as the laws of the kings decree, and that 
they shall mock thee; and finally that they shall 
crucify thee. 

Chap. 10 . — The sentence to this effect, then, hav¬ 
ing been passed by Pilate, the Jews began to strike 
Jesus, some with rods, others with their hands, 
others with their feet; some also spat in his face. 
Immediately, therefore, they got ready the cross 
and gave it to him, and flew to take the road. And 
thus going along.bearing also the cross he came as 
far as the gate of the city of Jerusalem* But as he, 
from the many blows and the weight of the cross, 
was unable to walk, the Jews, out of the eager de¬ 
sire they had to crucify him as quickly as possible, 
took the cross from him and gave it to a man that 
met them, Simon by name, who had also two sons, 
Alexander and Rufus. And he was from the city 
of Cyrene. They gave the cross, then, to him, not 
because they pitied Jesus and wished to lighten him 


*None of the Evangelists state definitely at what point on the way 
to Golgotha the crowd with Jesus met Simon the Cyrenian—upon 
whom for the balance of the journey the cross was laid. The Acts 
of Pilate state that Jesus “had come to the gate of the City of 
Jerusalem.” 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


89 


of the weight, but because they eagerly desired, as 
has been said, to put him to death more speedily. 

Of his disciples, therefore, John followed him 
there. Then he came fleeing to the mother of God, 
and said to her: Where hast thou been that thou 
hast not come to see what has happened? She 
answered: What is it that has happened? John 
says : Know that the Jews have laid hold of my 
Master, and are taking him away to crucify him. 
Hearing this, his mother cried out with a loud voice, 
saying : My son, my son, what hast thou done that 
they are taking thee away to crucify thee? And 
she rose up as if blinded, and goes along the road 
weeping. And women followed her—Martha and 
Mary Magdalene and other virgins. And John 
also was with her. When, therefore, they came to 
the multitude of the crowd, the mother of God says 
to John : Where is my son? John says : Seest thou 
him bearing the crown of thorns, and having his 
hands bound? And the mother of God, hearing 
this and seeing him, fainted and fell backwards to 
the ground, and lay a considerable time. And the 
women, as many as followed her, stood round her 
and wept. And as soon as she revived and rose up, 
she cried out with a loud voice : My Lord, my son, 
where has the beauty of thy form sunk? how shall 
I endure to see thee suffering such things? And 
thus saying, she tore her face with her nails, and 
beat her breast. Where are they gone, said she, 
the good deeds which thou didst in Judea? What 
-evil hast thou done to the Jews? The Jews, then 
seeing her thus lamenting and crying, came and 


90 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


drove her from the road : but she would not flee, 
but remained, saying: Kill me first, ye lawless 
Jews. 

Then they got safe to the place called Cranium, 
which was paved with stone : and there the Jews set 
up the cross. Then they stripped Jesus, and the 
soldiers took his garments and divided them among 
themselves ; and they put on him a tattered robe of 
scarlet, and raised him and drew him up on the 
cross at the sixth hour of the day. After this they 
brought, also, two robbers, the one on his right the 
other on his left. 

Then the mother of God standing and looking, 
cried out with a loud voice, saying: My son ! my 
son ! And Jesus, turning to her, and seeing John 
near her, and weeping with the rest of the women, 
said : Behold thy son ! Then he says also to John : 
Behold thy mother ! And she wept much, saying : 
For this I weep, my son. because thou sufferest un¬ 
justly, because the lawless Jews have delivered thee 
to a bitter death. Without thee, my son, what will 
become of me? How shall I live without thee? 
What sort of life shall I spend? Where are thy 
disciples, who boasted that they would die with 
thee? Where those healed by thee? How has no 
one been found to help thee? And looking to the 
cross, she said : Bend down, O cross, that I may 
embrace and kiss my son, whom I suckled at these 
breasts after a strange manner, as not having known 
man. Bend down, O cross; I wish to throw my 
arms round my son like a mother. The Jews hear¬ 
ing these words, came forward and drove to a 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


91 


distance both her and the women and John* 
Then Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying: 
Father, let not this sin stand against them, for they 
know not what they do. Then he says : I thirst. 
And immediately there ran one of the soldiers and 
took a sponge and tilled it with gall and vinegar 
mixed, and put it on a reed and gave to Jesus to 
drink. And having tasted it, he would not drink 
it. And the Jews, standing and looking on, laughed 
at him, and said : If thou truly sayest that thou art 
the Son of God. come down from the cross imme¬ 
diately, that we may believe in thee. Others said, 
mocking : Others he saved, others he cured, and he 
healed the sick, the paralytic, the lepers, the demon¬ 
iacs, the blind, the lame, the dead ; and himself he 
cannot cure. 


*Matthew, Mark and Luke, .state that Mary and the women and 
John, and all his acquaintance stood “beholding afar off.” John 
states that they stood “by the cross.” 

The Acts of Pilate harmonize these accounts by stating that “the 
Jews, hearing the lamentations of Mary, came forward and drove to 
a distance both her and the women, and John.” 

So that the truth of the Gospel account is made out, and Jesus, 
“the man of sorrows,” who in the dark garden alone had been with 
none among men to hear or to help, amid this second gloom, the 
garden of death—is left. Acquaintance, friend and mother must 
stand far off, and in the silence of the individual soul let him be 
circled who must pass through death. 

Though all this scene were but the myth of history, yet we might 
call it the echo of nature’s voice, declaring day by day “I am the 
way, the resurrection and the life” to every man who in that awful 
hour must hang alone upon the tree of Death; who in the silence of 
his soul’s individuality stands all alone, with only the One—to keep 
him awful company. 



D2 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


In the same manner, also, the robber crucified on 
his left hand said to him : If thou art the Son of God, 
come down and save both thyself and us. His 
name was Gistas. And he that was crucified on 
the right, Dysmas by name, reproved that robber, 
saying: O wretched and miserable man, dost thou 
not fear God? We suffer the due punishment of 
what we have done ; but this man has done no evil 
at all. And, turning to Jesus, he says to him: 
Lord, when thou shalt reign, do not forget me. 
And he said to him : To-day, I tell thee truth, I 
shall have thee in paradise with me. 

Chap. 11 . —Then Jesus, crying out with a loud 
voice, Father, into thy hands I shall commit my 
spirit, breathed his last. And immediately one 
could see the rocks rent; for there was an earth¬ 
quake over all the earth ; and from the earthquake 
being violent and great, the rocks also were rent. 
And the tombs of the dead were opened, and the 
curtain of the temple was rent, and there was dark¬ 
ness from the sixth hour till the ninth. And from 
all these things that had happened the Jews were 
afraid, and said Certainly this was a just man. 
And Longinus, the centurion, having perceived all 
these so great miracles, went away and reported 
them to Pilate. And when he heard he wondered 
and was astonished, and, from his fear and grief, 
would neither eat nor drink that day. And he sent 
notice, and all the Sanhedrin came to him as soon 
as the darkness was past; and he said to die peo¬ 
ple : You know how the sun has been darkened ; 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


92 


you know how the curtain has been rent. Certainly 
I did well in being by no means willing to put to 
death the good man. And the malefactors said to 
Pilate: This darkness is an eclipse of the sun,, 
such as has happened also at other times. Then 
they say to him : We hold the feast of unleavened 
bread to-morrow : and we entreat thee, since the 
crucified are still breathing, that they be brought 
down.* Pilate said : It shall be so. He therefore 
sent soldiers, and they found the two robbers yet 
breathing, and they broke their legs ; but finding 
Jesus dead they did not touch him at all, except 
that a soldier speared him in the rightf side, and 


*This was in accordance with the law of Moses:—If any man 
have committed a sin worthy of death, and thou hang him on a treer 
"his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in 
any wise bury him that day (for he that is hanged on a tree is ac¬ 
cursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord giveth 
thee for an inheritance. Deut. xxi: 22, 23. 

•f-This most singular statement of Jesus’ body being “speared in 
the right side ” deserves more than a passing notice. 

It must be true that if any modern medieval or second or third 
century Christian had been asked the question —On which side the 
body of Jesus was speared? he or she would have answered at once— 
“on the left side.” 

Some how or other this was and is the universal impression. 

No writer it would seem would have been bold enough to run 
counter to this universal impression—in writing up a view or con¬ 
ception of it as drawn from his imagination. 

There would be too much in his own mind against the statement,, 
in the whole and universal conception of the history in the case, and 
the world wide impression left of it now for more than sixteen or 
seventeen centuries. 

Why then should the writer of this phrase have had the hardi- 



94 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


immediately there came forth blood and water. 

And as the day of the preparation was drawing 
towards evening, Joseph, a man well-born and rich, 
a God-fearing Jew, finding Nicodemus, whose sen¬ 
timents his foregoing speech had shown, says to 
him: I know that thou didst love Jesus when 
living, and didst gladly hear his words, and I saw 
thee fighting with the Jews on his account. If then 
it seem good to thee, let us go to Pilate and beg the 
body of Jesus for burial, because it is a great sin 
for him to lie unburied. I am afraid, said Nicode¬ 
mus, lest Pilate should be enraged, and some evil 
should befall me. But if thou wilt go alone and beg 
the dead and take him, then will I also go with thee 
and help thee do everything necessary for the burial. 
Nicodemus having thus spoken, Joseph directed his 
eyes to heaven and prayed that he might not fail in 
his request; and he went away to Pilate, and having 
saluted him, sat down. Then he says to him : I 
entreat thee, my lord, not to be angry with me, if I 
shall ask anything contrary to what seems good to 
your highness. And he said : And what is it that 
thou askest? Joseph says: Jesus, the good man 
whom through hatred the Jews have taken away to 
crucify, him I entreat that thou give me for burial. 


hood to write contrary to all received opinion in framing up a narra¬ 
tive to be read as testimony and truth, unless it were true at the 
time—and the now prevailing contrary opinion not in existence at 
the time of his writing—but which after it has become so strong and 
universal? It is reasonably certain and beyond a reasonable doubt 
that this account is much older than the universal belief or impres¬ 
sion that Jesus was speared on the left side. 



THE ACTS OF PIEATE. 


95 


Piiate says : And what has happened that we should 
deliver to be honored again the dead body of him 
against whom evidence of sorcery was brought by 
his nation, and who was in suspicion of taking the 
kingdom of Caesar, and so was given up by us to 
death? And Joseph weeping and in great grief, 
fell at the feet of Pilate, saying : My lord let no ha¬ 
tred fall upon a dead man ; for all the evil that a man 
has done should perish with him in his death. And 
I know, }mur highness, how eager thou wast that 
Jesus should not be crucified, and how much thou 
saidst to the Jews on his behalf, now in entreaty 
and again in anger, and at last how thou didst 
wash thy hands and declare that thou wouldst by 
no means take part with those who wished him to 
be put to death ; for all which reasons I entreat thee 
not to refuse my request. Pilate, therefore, seeing 
Joseph thus lying and supplicating and weeping, 
raised him up, and said : Go ; I grant thee this 
dead man ; take him and do whatever thou wilt. 

And then Joseph, having thanked Pilate and 
kissed his hands and his garments, went forth re¬ 
joicing indeed in heart as having obtained his desire, 
but carrying tears in his eyes. Thus also, though 
grieved, he was glad. Accordingly, he goes away 
to Nicodemus and discloses to him all that had 
happened. Then, having bought myrrh and aloes 
a hundred pounds, and a new tomb, they, along 
with the mother of God* and Mary Magdalene and 

*The expression “mother of God” may be a change from the orig¬ 
inal “mother of the god,” as used by Pilate—made by the translator. 
We have an instance in point where a like change was made by 



96 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


Salome, along with John, and the rest of the women, 
did what was customary for the body with white 
linen, and placed it in the tomb. 

And the mother of God said, weeping: How 
am I not to lament thee, my son? How should I 
not tear my face with my nails? This is that, my 
son, which Symeon the elder foretold to me when 
I brought thee, an infant of forty days old, into the 
Temple. This is the sword which now goes- 
through my soul. Who shall put a stop to my tears, 
my sweetest son ? No one at all except thyself 
alone, if, as thou saidst, thou shalt rise again in 
three days. 

Mary Magdalene* said, weeping : Hear oh peo- 

Clement in substituting tum> 6ewv, of the gods, for too Beioo, of the- 
divine nature, as given in Huidekoper’s Judiasm at Rome, p. 43,. 
note 8, in a quotation from Clement. 

Pilate uses such words as Lord’s day, and he may have taken frorn. 
both the Roman and Christian uses of the terms, as other Latin writ¬ 
ers are known to have done in several compositions. 

We find in Julius Caesar’s decrees concerning the Jew’s “Almighty 
God,” “Sabbath,” “Sabbatical Year,” etc.—as quoted by Josephus.. 
(Antiq. Book xiv, chap.x.) 

And under Augustus we find the same expressions used by him, 
either in this express form or in language expressive of this sense 
whose form was put by Josephus. The term “mother of God” is- 
older than the birth of Jesus. To think that it was unknown to the 
ancients and unused by them till the days of the Christian church is- 
to think ignorantly. Historical criticism must not be violated by 
such a course as places the origin of a phrase in the second or third 
century that had been in use long before the Christian era. 

*This outburst of feeling is the speech of a very singular woman. 

Infamous in life, whose gilded person was the dwelling of seven 
evil spirits, she became the follower of Jesus only to attain and be¬ 
come-an immortal name in history, and the alabaster box of Chris¬ 
tian memory. 




Ilasselinan Photo. Eng. 


THE THREE MARYS. 


me original Dy M. ae Munkacsy. 


From “Christ on Calvary.” 





























' 





THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


97 


pies, tribes and tongues, and learn to what death 
the lawless Jews have delivered him who did them 
ten thousand good deeds. Hear and be astonished. 
Who will let these things be heard by all the world? 
I shall go alone to Rome to the Caesar. I shall 
show him what evil Pilate hath done in obeying the 
lawless Jews. Likewise, also, Joseph lamented, say¬ 
ing : Ah, me! sweetest Jesus, most excellent of 
men, if, indeed, it be proper to call thee man, who 
hast wrought such miracles as no man has ever 
done. How shall I enshroud thee? How shall 1 
entomb thee ? There should now have been here 
those whom thou fedst with a few loaves ; for thus 
should I not have seemed to fail in what is due. 

Then Joseph, along with Nicodemus, went home ; 
and, likewise, also the mother of God, with the 
women. John also being present with them. 

Her eyes were the first to be christened before all others with the 
vision of the first fruits from the dead —in the sight of the Resur¬ 
rected One. 

Famous had she been in that court that often ruled the world; and 
Cleopatra-like had made slaves of many an Antony and Caesar’s 
legate. 

But laying aside all the pomp of her gilded sin, cleansed in heart 
and lifted up into the sweet life of peace and purity, she became one 
of the foremost friends of Him whom she followed even to his death. 

When Pilate left Palestine the third spring after the crucifixion, 
en route for Rome with Claudia his wife and his Roman guards, we 
are told that he spent a night by the sea of Galilee, being enter¬ 
tained by this woman whose princely home made fittest place for 
his encampment; and that there he talked with her of Him whose 
death and name was deeply left upon his soul. 

The reader will see a fine picture of this meeting of Pilate, his 
wife Claudia and lady Magdalene, in Sir Edwin Arnold’s “Light of 
the World”—Book i. 



98 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


Chap. 12 .— When the Jews were made acquainted 
with these things done by Joseph and Nicodemus, 
thej^ were greatly stirred up against them. And 
the chief priests, Annas and Caiaphas, sent for Jos¬ 
eph, and said : Why hast thou done this service to 
Jesus? Joseph says: I know that Jesus was a man 
just and true and good in all respects; and I know, 
also, that you, through hatred, managed to murder 
him ; and therefore I buried him. Then the high 
priests were enraged, and laid hold of Joseph and 
threw him into prison, and said to him: If we had 
not to-morrow the feast of unleavened bread, to¬ 
morrow, also, should we have put thee, like him, to 
death ; but being kept in the meantime, early in the 
morning of the Lord’s day thou shalt be given up 
to death. Thus they spoke, and affixed their seal 
to the prison, having secured it by fastenings of all 
sorts. 

Thus, therefore, when the preparation was ended, 
early on the Sabbath the Jews went away to Pilate, 
and said to him : My lord, that deceiver said that 
after three days he should rise again. Lest, there¬ 
fore, his disciples should steal him by night and 
lead the people astray by such deceit, order his 
tomb to be guarded. Pilate therefore, upon this, 
gave them five hundred soldiers,* who all, sat round 
the sepulchre so as to guard it, after having put 
seals upon the stone of the tomb. 

*In the “Report of Pilate”—Vatican manuscript—near the end Pilate 
states that 2,000 chosen troops arrived at Jerusalem on the morning 
following the crucifixion. This would explain the possibility of giv¬ 
ing to the high priests 500 men to guard the sepulchre. 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


99 


The Lord’s day, then, having dawned, the chief 
priests, along with the Jews, called a council and 
sent to take Joseph out of the prison, in order to 
put him to death. But, having opened it, they 
found him not. And they were astonished at this— 
how, with doors shut and the bolts safe, and the 
seals unbroken, Joseph had disappeared. 

Chap. 13. — And upon this there came up one of 
the soldiers guarding the tomb, and he said in the 
synagogue : Learn that Jesus has risen. The Jews 
say: How? And he said: First there was an 
earthquake; then an angel of the Lord, clothed 
with lightning, came from heaven and rolled the 
stone from the tomb and sat upon it. And from 
fear of him all of us soldiers became as dead, and 
were able neither to flee nor speak. And we heard 
the angel saying to the women who came there to 
see the tomb : Be not afraid for I know that you 
seek Jesus. He is not here, but is risen, as he told 
you before. Bend down and see the tomb where 
his body lay ; but go and tell his disciples that he is 
risen from the dead, and let them go into Galilee, 
for there shall they find him. For this reason I tell 
you this first. 

The Jews say to the soldiers : What sort of wo¬ 
men were they who came to the tomb? and why 
did you not lay hold of them? The soldiers say : 
From the fear and the mere sight of the angel, we 
were neither able to speak nor move. The Jews 
said : As the God of Israel liveth, we do not be¬ 
lieve a word you say. The soldiers say: Jesus did 


100 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


so great wonders, and you believed not, and are 
you going to believe us ? You say truly that God 
liveth ; and certainly he whom you crucified truly 
liveth. But we have heard that you had Joseph 
shut up in the prison, and that you afterwards 
opened the doors and did not find him. Do you. 
then, present Joseph, and so we also shall present 
Jesus. The Jews say: Joseph, that fled from the 
prison, you will find in Arimathea, his own coun¬ 
try. And the soldiers say: Go you into Galilee, 
and you will find Jesus, as the angel said to the 
woman. 

At these words the Jews were afraid, and said to 
the soldiers : See that you tell this story to nobody, 
or all will believe in Jesus. And for this reason 
they gave them also much money. And the soldiers 
said : We are afraid lest by any chance Pilate hear 
that we have taken money, and he will kill us. 
And the Jews said : Take it; and we pledge our¬ 
selves that we shall speak to Pilate in your defense. 
Only say that you were asleep, and in your slumber 
the disciples of Jesus came and stole him from the 
tomb. The soldiers therefore took the money, and 
said as they were bid. And up to this day this 
same lying tale is told among the Jews. 

Chap. 14 . —And a few days after there came from 
Galilee to Jerusalem three men. One of them was 
a priest, by name Phinees; the second a Levite, by 
name Aggai; and the third a soldier, by name 
Adas. These came to the chief priests, and said to 
them and to the people: Jesus, whom you crucified. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


101 


we have seen in Galilee with his eleven disciples 
upon the Mount of Olives, teaching them, and say¬ 
ing : Go into all the world, and proclaim the good 
news ; and whosoever will believe and be baptized 
shall be saved ; but whosoever will not believe shall 
be condemned. And having thus spoken, he went 
up into heaven. And both we and many others of 
the five hundred besides were looking on.* 

And when the chief priests and the Jews heard 
these things, they said to these three: Give glory 
to the God of Israel, and repent of these lies that 
you have told. They answered: As the God of 
our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob liveth, we 
do not lie, but tell you the truth. Then the high 
priest spoke, and they brought the old covenant 
of the Hebrews out of the Temple, and he made 
them swear, and giving them also money, he sent 
them into another place, in order that they might 
not proclaim in Jerusalem the resurrection of Christ. 

And when these stories had been heard by all 


*The “many others of the five hundred” spoken of here may be 
of the soldiers or guards given by Pilate to the priests to watch the 
sepulchre. 

The excitement and commotion in and about the Temple at this 
time seems most natural under the circumstances. It has been a 
source of wonder to many Christians even, that the resurrection of 
Jesus took place so quietly, so unobserved by the multitudes that 
were then at Jerusalem—if the New Testament accounts contain all 
the events. 

The account given in this 14th chapter of the Acts of Pilate, 
would seem to comport well with all the known circumstances—and 
indeed it does seem strange that such events as here recorded should 
Jiave failed to occur. 



102 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


the people, the crowd came together into the Tem¬ 
ple, and there was a great commotion. For many 
said: Jesus has risen from the dead, as we hear, 
and why did you crucify him? And Annas and 
Caiaphas said : Do not believe, ye Jews, what the 
soldiers say; and do not believe that they saw an 
angel coming down from heaven. For we have 
given money to the soldiers, in order that they 
should not tell such tales to any one ; and thus also 
have the disciples of Jesus given them money, in 
order that they should say that Jesus has risen from 
the dead. 

Chap. 15.—Nicodemus says : O children of the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the prophet Helias went 
up into the height of heaven with a fiery chariot, 
and it is nothing incredible if Jesus too has risen ; 
for the prophet Helias was a prototype of Jesus, in 
order that you, hearing that Jesus has risen might 
not disbelieve. I therefore say and advise, that 
it is befitting that we send soldiers into Galilee, to 
that place where these men testify that they saw 
him with his disciples, in order that they may go 
round about and find him, and that thus we may 
ask pardon of him for the evil which we have done 
to him. This proposal pleased them; and they 
chose soldiers, and sent them away into Galilee. 
And Jesus indeed they did not find ; but they found 
Joseph in Arimathea. 

When, therefore, the soldiers had returned, the 
chief priests, having ascertained that Joseph was 
found, brought the people together, and said : What 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


103 


shall we do to get Joseph to come to us? After 
deliberating, therefore, they wrote to him a letter to 
the following effect: O father Joseph, peace be to 
thee and all thy house, and thy friends ! We know 
that we have offended against God, and against 
thee his servant. On account of this, we entreat 
thee to come here to us thy children. For we have 
wondered much how thou didst escape from the 
prison, and we say in truth that we had an evil de¬ 
sign against thee. But God, seeing that our de¬ 
signs against thee were unjust, has delivered thee 
out of our hands. But come to us, for thou art the 
honor of our people. 

This letter the Jews sent to Arimathea, with 
seven soldiers, friends to Joseph. And they went 
away and found him ; and having respectfully sa¬ 
luted him, as they had been ordered, they gave him 
the letter. And after receiving it and reading it, he 
glorified God, and embraced the soldiers ; and hav¬ 
ing set a table, ate and drank with them during all 
the day and the night. 

And on the following day he set out with them to 
Jerusalem ; and the people came forth to meet him, 
and embraced him. And Nicodemus received him 
into his own house. And the day after, Annas and 
Caiaphas, the chief priests, having summoned him 
to the Temple, said to him : Give glory to the God 
of Israel, and tell us the truth. For we know that 
thou didst bury Jesns ; and on this account we laid 
hold of thee, and locked thee up in the prison. 
Thereafter, when we sought to bring thee out to be 
put to death, we did not find thee, and we were 


104 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


greatly astonished and afraid. Moreover, we prayed 
to God that we might find thee, and ask thee. Tell 
ns therefore the truth. 

Joseph said to them: In the evening of the prep¬ 
aration, when you secured me in prison, I fell 
a-praying throughout the whole night, and through¬ 
out the whole day of the Sabbath. And at mid¬ 
night I see the prison-house that four angels lifted 
it up, holding it by the four corners. And Jesus 
came in like lightning, and I fell to the ground from 
fear. Taking hold of me, therefore, by the hand, 
he raised me, saying, Fear not, Joseph. Thereafter, 
embracing me, he kissed me, and said. Turn thy¬ 
self, and see who I am. Turning myself, therefore, 
and looking I said, My lord, I know not who thou 
art. He says, 1 am Jesus, whom thou didst bury 
the day before yesterday. I say to him, Show me 
the tomb and then I shall believe. He took me, 
therefore, by the hand, and led me away to the 
tomb, which had been opened. And seeing the 
linen and the napkin, and recognizing him, I said, 
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; 
and I adored him. Then taking me by the hand, 
and accompanied by the angels, he brought me to 
my house in Arimathea, and said to me, Sit here 
for forty days ; for I go to my disciples, in order that 
I may enable them fully to proclaim my resurrec¬ 
tion. 

Chap. 16 . —When Joseph had thus spoken, the 
chief priests cried out to the people: We know 
that Jesus had a father and mother ; how can we 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


105 


believe that he is the Christ? One of the Levites 
answered and said: I know the family of Jesus, 
noble-minded men, great servants of God, and re¬ 
ceiving titles from the people of the Jews. And I 
know also Symeon the elder, that he received him 
when he was an infant, and said to him : Now thou 
sendest away thy servant, O Lord. 

The Jews said : Let us now find the three men 
that saw him on the Mount of Olives, that we may 
question them, and learn the truth more accurately. 
They found them, and brought them before all, and 
made them swear to tell the truth. And they said : 
As the God of Israel liveth, we saw Jesus alive on 
the Mount of Olives and going up into heaven. 

Then Annas and Caiaphas took the three apart, 
one by one, and questioned them singly in private. 
They agreed with one another, therefore, and gave, 
even the three, one account. The chief priests an¬ 
swered, saying: Our scripture says that every word 
shall be established by two or three witnesses. Jo¬ 
seph, then, confessed that he, along with Nicode- 
mus, attended to his body and buried him, and how 
it is the truth that he has risen. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 

(LA TIN FORM.) 


Chapter 1.—Annas and Caiaphas. Summas and 
Datam, Gamaliel, Judas, Levi, Neptalim, Alexan¬ 
der and Jairus, and the rest of the Jews, came to 
Pilate, accusing the Lord Jesus Christ of many 
things, and saying: We know him to be the son 
of Joseph the carpenter, born of Mary ; and he says 
that he is the Son of God, and a king. Not only so 
but he also breaks the Sabbath, and wishes to do 
away with the laws of our fathers. Pilate says : 
What is it that he does, and wishes to destroy the 
law? The Jews say : We have a law, not to heal 
any one on the Sabbath : but he, by evil arts, heals 
on the Sabbath the lame and the hunchbacked, the 
blind, the palsied, the lepers, and the demoniacs. 
Pilate says to them : By what evil arts ? They say 
to him : He is a sorcerer : and by Beelzebub, prince 
of the demons, he casts out demons, and they are all 
subject to him. Pilate says to them: It is not in 
an unclean spirit to cast out demons but in the god 
of Scolapius. 

The Jews say : We pray thy majesty to set him 



THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


10T 


before thy tribunal to be heard. Pilate calling the 
Jews to him, says to them : How can I seeing that 
I am a govenor, hear a king ? They say to him : 
We do not say that he is a king, but he himself says 
he is. And Pilate, calling a runner, says to him : 
Let Jesus be brought in with kindness. And the 
runner, going out and recognizing him, adored him 
and spread on the ground the cloak which he car¬ 
ried in his hand, saying: My Lord, walk upon 
this, and come in, because the governor calls thee. 
But the Jews, seeing what the runner did, cried out 
against Pilate, saying : Why didst not thou make 
him come in by the voice of a crier, but by a run¬ 
ner? for the runner, too, seeing him, has adored 
him, and has spread out before him on the ground 
the cloak which he held in his hand, and has said 
to him : My Lord, the governor calls thee. 

And Pilate, calling the runner, says to him: 
Wherefore hast thou done this, and honored Jesus, 
who is called Christ? The, runner says to him: 
When thou didst send me into Jerusalem to Alex¬ 
ander, I saw him sitting upon an ass, and the chil¬ 
dren of the Hebrews breaking branches from the 
trees, strewing them in the way; and others spread 
their garments in the way, shouting and saying, 
Save therefore, thou who art in the highest; blessed 
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ! 

The Jews cried out, saying against the runner: 
The children of the Hebrews indeed cried out in 
Hebrew. How canst thou a Gentile, know this? 
The runner says to them : I asked one of the Jews, 
and said, What is it that they cry out in Hebrew? 


108 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


and he explained to me. Pilate says to them : 
And how did they cry out in Hebrew? The Jews 
said : Osanna in the highest! Pilate says to them : 
What is the meaning of Osanna in the highest? They 
say to him : Save us, thou who art in the highest. 
Pilate says to them : If you yourselves bear witness 
to these terms and words in which the children cried 
out, in what has the runner sinned? And they were 
silent. The governor says to the runner : Go out, 
and lead him in. in whatever way thou wilt. And 
the runner, going forth, did after the same form as 
before, and says to Jesus : My Lord, go in because 
the governor calls thee. 

As Jesus, then, was going in, and the standard- 
bearers bearing the standards, the heads of the stan¬ 
dards, were bowed of themselves and adored Jesus. 
And the Jews, seeing the standards, how they 
bowed themselves and adored Jesus, cried out the 
more against the standard-bearers. And Pilate says 
to the Jews: Do you not wonder at the way in 
which the standards have bowed themselves and 
adored Jesus? The Jews say to Pilate: We saw 
how the men carrying the standards bowed them¬ 
selves and adored Jesus. And the governor, calling 
the standard-bearers, says to them: Why have 
you so done? They say to Pilate : We are Gentile 
men, and slaves of the temple: how had we to 
adore Him : for when we were holding the figures 
they themselves bowed and adored Him. 

Pilate says to the chiefs of the synagogue and the 
elders of the people : Choose ye men powerful and 
strong, and let them hold the standards, and let us 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


109 

see whether they will bow of themselves. And the 
elders of the Jews, taking twelve men verv strong 
and powerful, made them hold the standards, six 
and six ; and they stood before the governor’s trib¬ 
unal. Pilate says to the runner : Take out Jesus 
outside of the Pretorium, and bring him in again in 
whatever way thou wilt. And Jesus and the run¬ 
ner went outside of the Pretorium. And Pilate, 
calling those who had lormerly held the standards, 
said to them : By the health of Cassar. if the stand¬ 
ards do not bow themselves when Jesus comes in, I 
will cut off your heads. And the governor ordered 
Jesus to come in a second time. And the runner 
did after the same form as before, and besought 
Jesus much that he would go up and walk upon his 
cloak. And he walked upon it, and went in. And 
as Jesus was going in, immediately the standards 
bowed themselves, and adored Jesus. 

Chap. 2 .— And Pilate seeing, fear seized him, 
and immediately he wished to rise from the tribunal. 
And while he was thinking of this, viz., to rise and 
go away, his wife sent to him, saying : Have nothing 
to do with that just man, for I have suffered much 
on account of him this night. And Pilate, calling 
the Jews, said to them : Ye know that my wife is 
a worshiper of God, and in Judaism thinks rather 
with you. The Jews say to him : So it is, and we 
know. Pilate says to them : Lo, my wife has sent 
to me, saying : Have nothing to do with that just 
man, for I have suffered much on account of him 
this night. And the Jews answering, said to Pilate : 


110 


THE ACTS OF PIE ATE. 


Did we not say to thee that he is a magician? Lo, 
he has sent a vision of dreams to thy wife. 

Pilate called Jesus, and said to him : What is it 
that these witness against thee, and sayst thou 
nothing to them? And Jesus answered: If they 
had not the power, they would not speak. Every 
one has power over his own mouth to say good and 
evil; let them see to it. 

And the elders of the Jews answering, say to 
Jesus: What shall we see? First, that thou wast 
bom of fornication; second, that at thy birth in 
Bethlehem there took place a massacre of infants ; 
third, that thy father Joseph and thy mother Mary 
Fed into Egypt, because they had no confidence in 
the people. 

Some of the bystanders, kind men of the Jews, 
say : We say that he was not born of fornication ; but 
we know that Mary was espoused to Joseph, and 
that he was not born of fornication. Pilate says to 
the Jews who said that he was of fornication : 
This speech of yours is not trne, seeing that the be¬ 
trothal took place, as these of your nation say. 
Annas and Caiaphas say to Pilate : We, with all 
the multitude, say that he was born of fornication, 
and that he is a magician ; but these are proselytes, 
and his disciples. And Pilate, calling Annas and 
Caiaphas, says to them: What are proselytes ? 
They say to him : They have been born sons of the 
Gentiles, and then have become Jews. Then an¬ 
swered those who testified that Jesus was not born 
of fornication, Lazarus and Asterius, Antonius and 
James, Annes and Azaras, Samuel and Isaac, Fi- 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


Ill 


nees and Crispus, Agrippa and Judas: We were 
not born proselytes, but are sons of the Jews, and 
we speak the truth : for we were present at the be¬ 
trothal of Mary. 

And Pilate, calling to him those twelve men who 
proved that Jesus had not been born of fornication, 
said to them : I adjure you by the health of Caesar, 
tell me if it be true that Jesus was not born of forni¬ 
cation. They say to Pilate : We have a law not to 
swear because it is a sin ; but let them swear by the 
health of Caesar that it is not as we say, and we are 
worthy of death. Then said Pilate to Annas and 
Caiaphas: Answer you nothing to those things 
which these testify ? Annas and Caiaphas say to 
Pilate : Those twelve are believed that he was not 
born of fornication ; we—all the people—cry out 
that he was born of fornication, and is a magician, 
and says that he himself is the Son of God and a 
king, and we are not believed. 

And Pilate ordered all the multitude to go outside, 
except the twelve men who said that he was not 
born of fornication, and ordered to separate Jesus 
from them. And Pilate says to them : For what 
reason do the Jews wish to put Jesus to death? 
And they say to him : They are angry because he 
heals on the Sabbath. Pilate said : For a good 
work do they wish to put him to death? They say 
to him : Yes, my Lord. 


Chap. 3 . —Pilate, filled with fury, went forth out¬ 
side of the Pretorium, and says to them : I take the 


112 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


sun to witness that I find in this man not even one 
fault. The Jews answered and said to the gover¬ 
nor : If he were not an evil-doer we should never 
have delivered him to thee. Pilate says to them : 
Take him and judge him according to your law. 
The Jews answered : It is not permitted to us to 
put any one to death. Pilate says to them : Has 
God said to you not to put any one to death? has 
he, therefore, said to me that I am to kill? 

Pilate, having again gone into the Pretorium, 
called Jesus to him privately, and said to him : Art 
thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered Pilate : 
Speakest thou this of thyself, or have others said it 
to thee of me? Pilate answered: Am I a Jew? 
Thy nation and the chief priests have delivered thee 
to me. What hast thou done? Jesus, answering, 
said: My kingdom is not of this world. If my 
kingdom were of this world, my servants would 
assuredly strive that I should not be delivered to the 
Jews : but my kingdom is not from hence. Pilate 
said to him: Art thou then a king? Jesus said to 
him : Thou sayest that I am a king. For I for this 
was born, and for this have I come, that I should 
bear witness to the truth ; and every one who is of 
the truth hears my voice. Pilate says to him : What 
is truth? Jesus says : Truth is from heaven. Pilate 
says : Is not there truth upon earth? Jesus says to 
Pilate : Notice how the truth-speaking are judged 
by those who have power upon earth. 

Chap. 4 .— Pilate, therefore, leaving Jesus within 
the Pretorium, went out to the Jews, and says to 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


113 


them : I find not even one fault in him. The Jews 
say to him : He said, I can destroy that Temple, 
and in three days raise it again. Pilate said to 
them : What Temple? The Jews say to him : The 
Temple which Solomon built in forty and six years ; 
and he says that he can destroy and build it in three 
days. Pilate says to them ; I am innocent of the 
blood of this man ; see ye to it. The Jews say to 
him : His blood be upon us and upon our children. 

And Pilate, calling the elders and priests and 
Levites, says to them privately : Do not do so ; for 
in nothing, though you accuse him, do I find him 
deserving of death, not even about the healing, and 
the breaking of the Sabbath. The priests and Le¬ 
vites and elders say: Tell us, if any one blasphem- 
eth Cagsar, is he deserving of death or not? Pilate 
says to them : He deserves to die. The Jews an¬ 
swered him : How much more is he who has blas¬ 
phemed God deserving to die ! 

And the governor ordered the Jews to go outside 
of the Pretorium ; and, calling Jesus, said to him : 
What am I to do with thee? Jesus says to Pilate : 
As it has been given thee. Pilate says : How has 
it been given? Jesus says: Moses and the proph¬ 
ets made proclamation of my death and resurrec¬ 
tion. And the Jews, hearing this, say to Pilate : 
Why do you desire any more to hear blasphemy? 
And Pilate said : If this speech is blasphemous, do 
you take him and lead him to your synagogue and 
judge him according to your law. The Jews say 
to Pilate: Our law holds, If a man have sinned 
against a man, he is worthy to receive forty less 


114 


THE ACTS OF FILATE. 


one ; but he who has blasphemed against God, to 
be stoned. 

Pilate says to them : Then judge him according 
to your law. The jews say to Pilate : We wish 
that he be crucified. Pilate says to them : He does 
not deserve to be crucified. 

And the governor, looking upon the people of 
the Jews standing round, saw very many of the 
Jews weeping, and said : All the multitude does not 
wish him to die. The elders say to Pilate: And 
for this reason have we come—the whole multitude 
—that he should die. Pilate said to the Jews: 
What has he done that he should die? They say : 
Because he said that he was the Son of God, and a 
king. 

Chap. 5 . —But one Nicodemus, a Jew, stood be¬ 
fore the governor, and said : I entreat mercifully, 
allow me to say a few words. Pilate says to him : 
Say on. Nicodemus says : I said to the elders and 
the priests and the Levites, and to all the multitude 
of the Jews in the synagogue, What have you to 
do with this man ? This man does many wonders 
and signs, which no one of men has done or can 
do. Let him go, and do not devise any evil against 
him : if the signs which he does are of God, they 
will stand ; but if of men, they will come to nothing. 
For Moses, also, being sent by God into Egypt, did 
many signs, which God told him to do before Pha¬ 
raoh, king of Egypt. And the sorcerers, Jamnes 
and Mambres, were there healing, and they did, 
they also, the signs which Moses did, but not all, 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


115 


and the Egyptians deemed them as gods, Jamnes 
and Mambres. And since the signs which they 
did were not of God, they perished, both they and 
those who believed in them. And now let this man 
go, for he is not deserving of death. 

The Jews say to Nicodemus : Thou hast become 
his disciple, and takest his part. Nicodemus says 
to them : Has the governor also become his disciple, 
and does he take his part? Has not Csesar set him 
over that dignity? And the Jews were raging and 
gnashing with their teeth against Nicodemus. Pi¬ 
late says to them : Why do you gnash your teeth 
against him, w r hen you are hearing the truth? The 
Jews say to Nicodemus: Mayst thou receive his 
truth, and a portion with him ! Nicodemus says : 
Amen, amen, amen : may I receive it, as you have 
said! 

Chap. 6 . —And of the Jews a certain other one, 
starting up, asks the governor that he might say a 
word. The governor says : What thou wishest to 
say, say. And he said : For thirty-eight years I 
lay in infirmity in my bed in very grievous pain 
And at the coming of Jesus many demoniacs, and 
persons held down by divers infirmities, were healed 
by him. And some young men had pity on me, 
and, carrying me in bed, laid me before him. And 
J esus, seeing, had pity on me and said the word to 
me, Take up thy bed and walk. And immediately 
I was made whole ; I took up my bed and walked. 
The Jews say to Pilate : Ask him what was the day 
on which he was healed. He said: The Sabbath. 


116 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


The Jews say : Have we not so informed thee, that 
on the Sabbath he heals and drives out demons? 

And a certain other Jew, starting up, said : I was 
born blind : I heard a voice and saw no man. And 
as Jesus was passing by I cried out with a loud 
voice, Have pit}' upon me, thou son of David. 
And he had pity upon me, and laid his hands upon 
my eyes, and I saw immediately. And another 
Jew, starting up, said : I was hunchbacked, and he 
straightened me with a word. And another said : 
I was leprous, and he healed me with a word. 


Chap. 7 . —And also a certain woman, Veronica 
by name, from afar off cried out to the governor : 
I was flowing with blood for twelve years ; and I 
touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately 
the flowing of my blood stopped. The Jews say : 
We have a law that a woman does not come to bear 
witness. 

Chap. 8.— And certain others, a multitude of 
men and women, cried out, saying : That man is a 
prophet, and the demons are subject to him. Pilate 
says to those who said that the demons are subject 
to him : And your masters, why are they not sub¬ 
ject to him? They say to Pilate : We do not know. 
And others said to Pilate : He raised up dead Laz¬ 
arus from the tomb after four days. The governor, 
hearing this, said trembling to all the multitude of 
the Jews: Why do you wish to shed innocent 
blood ? 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


117 


Chap. 9. —And Pilate, calling Nicodemus and 
the twelve men who said that he was not born of 
fornication, says to them : What am I to do, seeing 
that there is a sedition among the people? They 
say to him : We do not know ; let them see to it. 
Again Pilate, calling all the multitude of the Jews, 
said : You know that you have a custom during the 
day of unleavened bread, that I should release to 
you one that is bound. I have a notable one bound 
in the prison, a murderer who is called Bar Abbas, 
and Jesus who is called Christ, in whom I find no 
cause of death. Whom do you wish that I should 
release unto you? And they all cried out saying : 
Release unto us Bar Abbas. Pilate says to them : 
What, then, am I to do with Jesus who is called 
Christ? They all say: Let him be crucified. Again 
the Jews said: Thou art no friend of Caesar’s if 
thou release this man, for he called himself the Son 
of God, and a king : unless perhaps thou wishest 
this man to be king, and not Caisar. 

Then, filled with fury, Pilate said to them : Al¬ 
ways has your nation been seditious, and always 
have you been opposed to those who were for you. 
The Jews answered : Who are for us? Pilate says 
to them : Your God, who rescued you from the hard 
slavery of the Egyptians, and led you forth out ot 
Egypt through the sea as if through dry land, and 
fed you in the desert with manna and quail, and 
brought water to you out of the rock and gave you 
to drink, and gave you a law: and in all these 
things you provoked )mur God, and sought for your¬ 
selves a god—a molten calf. And you exasperated 


118 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


your God, and he wished to slay you ; and Moses 
made supplication for you, that ye should not die. 
And now you say that I hate the king. 

And, rising up from the tribunal, he wished to go 
outside. And the Jews cried out and said to him : 
We know that Caesar is king, and not Jesus. For 
the magi also presented gifts to him as a king; and 
Herod, hearing from the magi that a king was born, 
wished to slay him. But when this was known, his 
father, Joseph, took him and his mother and fled 
into Egypt: and Herod, hearing, destroyed the in¬ 
fants of the Jews which were born in Bethlehem. 

Pilate, hearing these words, was afraid. And, 
silence being made among the people who were 
crying out, Pilate said: This, then, is he whom 
Herod sought? They say to him : It is he. And, 
taking water, Pilate washed his hands in presence 
of the people, saying: I am innocent of the blood 
of this just man ; see ye to it. Again the Jews 
cried out, saying : His blood be upon us and upon 
our children. 

Then Pilate ordered the veil to be loosened, and 
said to Jesus: Thine own nation have brought 
charges against thee as a king ; and, therefore, I 
have sentenced thee first to be scourged on account 
of the statutes of the emperors, and then to be cru¬ 
cified on the cross. 

Chap. 10.—And when Jesus was scourged, he 
delivered him to the Jews to be crucified, and two 
robbers with him ; one by name Dismas, and the 
other by name Gistas. And when they came to 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


119 


the place, they stripped him of his garments and 
girt him about with a linen cloth and put a crown of 
thorns upon his head. Likewise, also, they hanged 
the two robbers with him. Dismas on the right and 
Gistas on the left. And Jesus said : Father, for¬ 
give them, for they know not what they do. And 
the soldiers parted his garments among them. And 
the people stood waiting; and their chief priest and 
judges mocked him, saying among themselves : He 
saved others, now let him save himself; if he is the 
Son of God, let him come down from the cross. 
And the soldiers mocked him, falling prostrate 
before him, and offering him vinegar with gall, and 
saying : If thou art the king of the Jews, set thy¬ 
self free. 

And Pilate, after sentence, ordered a title to be 
written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin letters, accord¬ 
ing to what the Jews said : This is the King of the 
Jews. 

And one of the robbers who were hanged, by 
name Gistas, said to him : If thou art the Christ, 
free thyself and us. And Dismas, answering, re¬ 
buked him, saying: Dost not even thou fear God, 
who art in condemnation? for we justly and de¬ 
servedly have received those things which we en¬ 
dure, but he has done no evil. And he kept saying 
to Jesus: Remember me, Lord, in thy kingdom. 
And Jesus said to him : Verily I say unto thee, that 
today shalt thou be with me in paradise. 

Chap. 11. And it was about the sixth hour, and 
there was darkness over the whole earth ; and the 


120 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


sun was obscured, and the veil of the Temple was 
rent in the midst. And, crying out with a loud 
voice, he said: Father, into thy hands I commend 
my spirit. And thus saying, he gave up the ghost. 
And the centurion, seeing what was done glorified 
God, saying: This was a just man. And all the 
people who were present at that spectacle, seeing 
what was done, beating their breasts, returned. 

And the centurion reported to the governor what 
was done. And the governor and his wife* hearing, 
were very sorrowful, and neither ate nor drank that 
day. And Pilate, calling together the Jews, said to 
them : Have you seen what has been done? And 
they said to the governor: There has been an 
eclipse of the sun, as is usual. 

And his acquaintances stood afar off, and the 
women who had followed him from Galilee, seeing 
these things. And lo, a certain man, by name Jo¬ 
seph, holding office—a man good and just, who did 
not consent to their counsels nor their deeds, from 
Arimathea, a city of the Jews, waiting—he, also for 
the kingdom of God, went to Pilate and begged the 
body of Jesus. And, taking him down from the 
cross, he wrapped him in clean linen and laid him 
in his own new tomb, in which no one had been 
laid. 

Chap. 12. —And the Jews, hearing that Joseph 
had begged the body of Jesus, sought for him ; and 
those twelve men who had said that He was not 
born of fornication, and many others who had stood 
before Pilate and declared his good works. And 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


121 


all of them being hid, Nicodemus alone appeared 
to them, because he was a chief man of the Jews ; 
and he says to them : How have ye come into the 
synagogue? The Jews say to him: And thou, 
how hast thou come into the s\ r nagogue, seeing that 
thou consentest with him? May his portion be with 
thee in the world to come! Nicodemus said: 
Amen, amen, amen. Likewise also Joseph, coming 
forth, said to themJ Why are you enraged against 
me because I begged the body of Jesus? Lo, I 
have laid him in my own new tomb, wrapping him 
in clean linen; and I have rolled a stone to the door 
of the cave. And ye have not acted well against 
•a just man, since you have not borne in mind how 
you crucified him and pierced him with a lance. 
The Jews, therefore, laying hold of Joseph, ordered 
him to be imprisoned because of the Sabbath day ; 
and they say to him : Know that the hour com¬ 
pels us not to do anything against thee, because the 
Sabbath is dawning. But understand that thou art 
worthy not even of burial, but we will give thy flesh 
to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. 
Joseph says to them : That is the speech of the 
proud Goliath, who reviled the living God against 
holy David. And God hath said, Vengeance is 
mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord. And Pilate, 
intercepted in his heart, took water, and washed 
his hands before the sun, saying, I am innocent of 
the blood of this just man ; see ye to it. And you 
answered and said to Pilate, His blood be upon us, 
and upon our children. And now I fear that some¬ 
time or other the wrath of God will come upon you 


122 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


and your children, as you have said. And the 
Jews, hearing this, were embittered in heart-; and 
taking Joseph, shut him up in a house where there 
was no window, and set guards at the gates, and 
sealed the gate where Joseph had been shut up. 

And on the Sabbath morning they took counsel 
with the priests and the Levites, that they should all 
be assembled after the Sabbath day. And awaking 
at dawn, all the multitude in the synagogue took 
counsel by what death they shonld slay him. And 
when the assembly was sitting, they ordered him. to 
be brought with much indignity ; and opening the 
gate, they found him not. All the people therefore 
were in terror, and wondered with exceeding aston¬ 
ishment, because they found the seals sealed, and 
because Caiaphas had the keys. And no longer 
did they dare to lay hand upon those who spoke 
before Pilate in Jesus’ defense. 

Chap. 13.—And while they were sitting in the 
synagogue, and recriminating about Joseph, there 
came certain of the guards whom they had asked 
from Pilate to guard the sepulchre of Jesus, lest his 
disciples coming should steal him. And they re¬ 
ported, saying to the rulers of the synagogue, and 
the priest and the Levites, what had happened:: 
how there had happened a great earthquake, and 
we saw how an angel of the Lord came down from 
heaven, and rolled away the stone from the door of 
the tomb, and sat upon it; and his countenance was 
like lightning, and his raiment like snow. And for 
fear, we became as dead. And we heard the voice 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


123 


of the angel speaking to the women who had come 
to the sepulchre, and saying, Be not ye afraid ; for 
I know that ye seek Jesus who was crucified : He 
is not here ; he has risen, as he said : come and see 
the place where the Lord was laid. And go imme¬ 
diately and tell his disciples that he is risen from the 
dead, and will go' before you into Galilee, as he 
said to you. 

The Jews say : To what women was he speak¬ 
ing? The soldiers say : We do not know who the 
women were. The Jews say : At what hour was 
it? The guards say: At midnight. The Jews 
say: And why did you not detain them ? The 
guards say : We became as dead from fear of the 
angel, not hoping now to see the light of day , and 
how could we detain them? The Jews say: As 
the Lord God liveth, we do not believe you. And 
the guards said to the Jews: You have seen so 
great signs in that man. and have not believed ; and 
how can you believe us that the Lord lives? For 
well have ye sworn that the Lord Jesus Christ lives. 
Again the guards say to the Jews : We have heard 
that you have shut up Joseph, who begged the body 
of Jesus, in the prison, and have sealed it with your 
rings ; and on opening, that you have not found 
him. Give us Joseph, then, and we shall give you 
Jesus Christ. The Jews said : Joseph has gone to 
Arimathea, his own city. The guards say to the 
Jews : And Jesus, as we have heard from the angel 
is in Galilee. 

And the Jews, hearing these sayings, feared ex¬ 
ceedingly, saying : Lest at some time or other this 


124 


THE ACTS OF PIE ATE. 


saying be heard, and all believe in Jesus. And the 
Jews, taking counsel among themselves, brought 
forth a sufficient number of silver pieces, and gave 
to the soldiers, saying; Say that, while we slept, 
his disciples came and stole him. And if this be 
heard by the governor, we shall persuade him, and 
make you secure. And the soldiers, taking the 
money, said as they were advised by the Jews, and 
their saying was spread abroad among all. 

Chap. 14.—And Finees a certain priest, and 
Addas a teacher, and Egias a Levite. coming down 
from Galilee to Jerusalem, reported to the rulers of 
the synagogue, aud the priests and the Levites, how 
they had seen Jesus sitting, and his disciples with 
him, on the Mount of Olivet, which is called Mam- 
bre, or Malech. And he said to his disciples: Go 
into all the world, and declare to every creature the 
gospel of the kingdom of God. He who believeth 
and is baptized shall be saved ; but he who believeth 
not shall be condemned. And these signs shall 
follow them who believe: In my name shall they 
cast out demons ; they shall speak in new tongues ; 
they shall take up serpents ; and if they have drunk 
any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall 
lay hands upon the sick, and they shall be well. 
And as Jesus was thus speaking to his disciples, we 
saw him taken up into heaven. 

The priests and the Levites and the elders say to 
them : Give glory to the God of Israel, and give 
confession to him, whether you have both heard 
and seen those things which you have related. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


125 


Those who had made the report say : As the Lord 
God of our fathers liveth, the God of Abraham, and 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, we have 
heard and seen. The Jews say to them: Have 
you come for this—to tell us ? or have you come to 
give prayer to God? They said : We have come to 
give prayer to God. The elders and chief priests 
and Levites say to them : And if you have come to 
give prayer to God, why have you murmured before 
all the people about that foolish tale? Finees the 
priest, and Addas the teacher, and Egias the Levite, 
say to the rulers of the synagogue, and the priests 
and the Levites : If those words which we have 
spoken, which we have seen and heard, be sin, be¬ 
hold we are in your presence; do unto us according 
to that which is good in your eyes. And they 
taking the law, adjured them to report the words to 
no one thereafter And they gave them to eat and 
drink, and put them outside of the city, giving them 
silver pieces, and three men with them, who should 
conduct them as far as Galilee. 

Then the Jews took counsel among themselves 
when those men had gone up into Galilee ; and the 
rulers of the synagogue shut themselves in, and 
were cut up with great fury, saying: What sign is 
this which hath come to pass in Israel? And An¬ 
nas and Caiphas say : Why are your souls sorrow¬ 
ful ? Are we to believe the soldiers, that an angel of 
the Lord came down from heaven, and rolled away 
the stone from the door of the tomb? No ; but that 
his disciples have given much gold to those who 
were guarding the sepulchre, and have taken Jesus 


126 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


away, and have taught them thus to say : Say ye, 
that an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, 
and rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb. 
Do you not know that it is unlawful for Jews to be¬ 
lieve foreigners in a single word, knowing that these 
same who received sufficient gold from us have said 
as we taught them ? 

Chap. 15. And Nicodemus rising up, stood in 
the midst of the council, and said: You have said 
rightly. And are not the men who have come 
down from Galilee God-fearing, men of peace, 
hating a lie? And they recounted with an oath, 
how “we saw Jesus sitting on Mount Mambre with 
his disciples, and he taught them in our hearing, 
and that they saw him taken up into heaven. And 
no one asked them this : How he was taken up into 
heaven. And, as the writing of the holy book 
teaches us, holy Elias too was taken up into heaven, 
and Elisaeus cried out with a loud voice, and Elias 
threw his sheepskin over Elisams; and again Eli- 
sseus threw that sheepskin over the Jordan, and went 
over and came to Jericho. And the sons of the 
prophets met him, and said to Elisaeus, Where is thy 
master Elias? And he said, He has been taken up 
into heaven. And they said to Elisaeus, Has a spirit 
snatched him away, and thrown him upon one of 
the mountains? But rather let us take our boys 
with us and seek him. And they persuaded Eli¬ 
saeus, and he went with them. And they sought 
' him for three days and three nights, and found him 
not, because he was taken up. And now, men. 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


127 


hear me, and let us send into all Israel, and see lest 
Jesus can have been taken up somewhere or other, 
and thrown upon one of the mountains. And that 
saying pleased all. And they sent to all the moun¬ 
tains of Israel to seek Jesus, and they found him 
not; but they found Joseph of Arimathea, and no 
one dared to lay hold of him. 

And they reported to the elders and priests and 
Levites : We have gone round all the mountains 
of Israel, and not found Jesus ; but we found Jos¬ 
eph in Arimathea. And hearing of Joseph, they 
rejoiced, and gave glory to the God of Israel. And 
the rulers of the synagogue, and the priests and 
the Levites, taking counsel in what manner they 
should send to Joseph, took paper, and wrote to 
Joseph. 

Peace to thee and all that is thine ! We know 
that we have sinned against God, and against thee; 
and thou hast prayed to the God of Israel, and he 
has delivered thee out of our hands. And now 
■deign to come to thy fathers and thy children, be¬ 
cause we have been vehemently grieved. We have 
all sought for thee—we who opened the door, and 
found thee not. We know that we counseled evil 
counsel against thee : but the Lord hath supplanted 
our counsel against thee. Thou art worthy to be 
honored, father Joseph, by all the people. 

And they chose out of all Israel seven men 
friendly to Joseph, whom also Joseph knew to be 
trienaly : and the rulers of the synagogue and the 
priests and the Levites'say to them : See. if he take 
the letter and read it, for certain he will come with 


128 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


you to us ; but if he do not read, you may know 
that he is ill-disposed towards us, and, saluting him 
in peace, return to us. And blessing them, they 
sent them away. And they came to Arimathea to 
Joseph, and adored him on their face upon the 
ground, and said: Peace to thee and all thine! 
And Joseph said : Peace to you, and to all the peo¬ 
ple of Israel! And they gave him the roll of the 
letter. And Joseph took and read it, and rolled up 
the letter, and blessed God, and said : Blessed be 
the Lord God, who hath delivered Israel from shed¬ 
ding innocent blood ; and blessed be God, who sent 
his angel, and covered me under his wings. And 
he kissed them, and set a table for them ; and they 
ate and drank, and slept there. 

And they rose in the morning; and Joseph sad¬ 
dled his ass, and travelled with them, and they came 
into the holy city Jerusalem. And there met them 
all the people, crying out, and saying: Peace be in 
thy coming in, father Joseph! To whom he an¬ 
swered and said : The peace of the Lord be upon 
all the people! And they all kissed him. And 
they prayed with Joseph, and were terrified at the 
sight of him. x\nd Nicodemus took him into liis 
house, and made a great feast, and called Annas 
and Caiaphas, and the elders and chief priests and 
Levites, to his house. And making merry, and eat¬ 
ing and drinking with Joseph, they blessed God, 
and went every one to his own house. And Joseph 
remained in the house of Nicodemus. 

And on the next day, which is the preparation, 
the priests and the rulers of the synagogue and the 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


129 


Levites rose early, and came to the house of Nico- 
demus. And Nicodemus met them, and said to 
them : Peace to you ! And they said to him : Peace 
to thee and Joseph, and to thy house and Joseph’s 
house! And Nicodemus brought them into his 
house. And the council sat; and Joseph sat be¬ 
tween Annas and Caiaphas, and no one dared to 
say a word. And Joseph said to them : Why have 
you called me ? And they made signs with their 
eyes to Nicodemus, that he should speak with Jos¬ 
eph. And Nicodemus opening his mouth, said : 
Father Joseph, thou knowest that the reverend 
teachers, priests, and Levites seek to hear a word 
from thee. And Joseph said: Ask. And Annas 
and Caiaphas, taking up the law, adjured Joseph, 
saying: Give glory to the God of Israel, and give 
confession to him, that thou wilt not hide any word 
from us. And they said to him : With grief were 
we grieved that thou didst beg the body of Jesus, and 
wrap it in clean linen, and lay it in a tomb. There¬ 
fore we shut thee up in a house where there was no 
window, and put a lock and a seal on the gate ; and 
on the first day of the week we opened the gates, 
and found thee not. We were therefore exceedingly 
grieved, and astonishment came over all the people 
of God. And therefore hast thou been sent for; 
and now tell us what has happened. 

Then said Joseph : On the day of the prepara¬ 
tion, about the tenth hour, you shut me in, and I 
remained there the whole Sabbath in full. And 
when midnight came, as I was standing and pray¬ 
ing, the house where you shut me in was hung up 


130 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


by the four corners, and there was a flashing of 
light in mine eyes. And I fell to the ground tremb¬ 
ling. Then some one lifted me up from the place 
where I had fallen, and poured over me an abun¬ 
dance of water from the head even to the feet, and 
put round my nostrils the odor of a wonderful oint¬ 
ment, and rubbed my face with the water itself, as 
if washing me, and kissed me, and said to me, 
Joseph, fear not; but open thine eyes, and see who 
it is that speaks to thee. And looking, I saw Jesus ; 
and being terrified, I thought it was a phantom. 
And with prayer and the commandments I spoke 
to him, and he spoke with me. And* I said to him : 
Art thou Rabbi Elias? And he said to me : I am 
not Elias. And I said: Who art thou, my lord? 
And he said to me: I am Jesus, whose body thou 
didst beg from Pilate, and wrap in clean linen; and 
thou didst lay a napkin on my face, and didst lay 
me in a new tomb, and roll a stone to the door of 
the tomb. Then I said to him that was speaking to 
me: Show me, Lord, where I laid thee. And he 
led me, and showed me the place where I laid him, 
and the linen which I had put on him, and the nap¬ 
kin which I had wrapped upon his face; and I 
knew that it was Jesus. And he took hold of me 
with his hands, and put me in the midst of my house 
though the gates were shut, and put me in my bed, 
and said to me : Peace to thee ! And he kissed me, 
and said to me : For forty days go not out of thy 
house ; for, lo, I go to my brethren into Galilee. 

Chap. 16. —And the rulers of the synagogue, and 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


131 


the priests and the Levites, hearing these words 
from Joseph, became as it were, dead, and fell to 
the ground, and fasted until the ninth hour. And 
Joseph and Nicodemus entreated them, saying: 
Arise and stand upon your feet, and taste bread, 
and comfort your souls, seeing that to-morrow is 
the Sabbath of the Lord. And they arose, and 
entreated the Lord, and ate and drank, and went 
every man to his own house. 

And on the Sabbath the teachers and doctors sat 
questioning each other, and saying: What is this 
wrath that has come upon us? because we know 
his father and mother. Levi the teacher said : I 
know that his parents fear God, and never depart 
from prayer, and give tithes thrice a year. And 
when Jesus was born, his parents brought him up 
to this place, and gave to God sacrifices and burnt 
offerings. And assuredly the great teacher Simeon 
took him into his arms, saying: Now thou sendest 
away thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word, 
in peace ; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
which thou hast prepared before the face of all peo¬ 
ples, a light for the revealing of the nations, and 
the glory of thy people Israel. And he blessed 
Mary his mother, and said, I make an announce¬ 
ment to thee concerning this child. And Mary 
said, Well, my lord. And Simeon said, Well. 
And he said again, Lo, he has been set for the fall 
and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign 
which shall be spoken against; and a sword shall 
pierce thine own soul, that the thoughts of many 
hearts may be revealed. 


132 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


And the Jews said to Levi: And how knowest 
thou these things ? Levi says : Do you not know 
that from him I learned the law? They of the 
council say : We wish to see thy father. And they 
searched out his father, and got information ; for he 
said: Why did you not believe my son? The 
blessed and just Simeon taught him the law r . The 
council says to Rabbi Levi: The saying which 
thou hast spoken is true. The chief priests and 
rulers of the synagogue, and Levites, said to each 
other: Come, let us send into Galilee to the three 
men who came hither and gave an account of his 
teaching and his being taken up, and let them tell 
us how they saw him taken up into heaven. And 
that saying pleased all. Then they sent three men 
into Galilee ; and go, said they, say to Rabbi Addas 
and Rabbi Finees and Rabbi Egias, Peace to you 
and yours ! Many investigations have been made 
in the council concerning Jesus ; therefore have we 
been instructed to call you to the holy place, to 
Jerusalem. 

The men went to Galilee, and found them sitting 
and meditating on the law. And they saluted them 
in peace. And they said : Why have you come? 
The messengers said : The council summon you to 
the holy city Jerusalem. And the men, hearing 
that they were sought for by the council, prayed to 
God, and reclined with the men, and ate and drank 
with them. And rising in the morning, they went 
to Jerusalem in peace. 

And on the morrow the council sat; and they 
questioned them, saying : Did you plainly see Jesus 


THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


133 


sitting on Mount Mambre teaching his disciples ; 
and taken up into heaven? 

First Addas the teacher says : I really saw him 
sitting on Mount Mambre teaching his disciples ; 
and a shining cloud overshadowed him and his 
disciples, and he went up into heaven ; and his dis¬ 
ciples prayed upon their faces on the ground. And 
calling Finees the priest, they questioned him also, 
saying : How didst thou see Jesus taken up? And 
he said the same as the other. And again they 
called the third, Rabbi Engias, and questioned him, 
and he said the same as the first and second. And 
those who were in the council said: The law of 
Moses holds that by the mouth of two or three ev¬ 
ery word should stand. Abudem., a teacher, one of 
the doctors, says: It is written in the law, Enoch 
walked with God, and was translated; for God 
took him. Jairus, a teacher, said : And we have 
heard of the death of holy Moses and have not 
seen it; for it is written in the law of the Lord.* 
And Moses died according to the word of the Lord, 
and no man knoweth of his burying even to the 
present day. Rabbi Levi said: What is it that 
Rabbi Simeon said? Lo, he lies for the fall and 
rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which 
shall be spoken against? Rabbi Isaac said: It is 
written in the law, Lo, I send mine angel, who 
shall go before thy face to keep thee in every good 
way, because I have brought his new name. 

Then Annas and Caiaphas said: Rightly have 
ye said that these things are written in the law of 
Moses that no one saw the death of Enoch, and no 


134 THE ACTS OF PILATE. 

one has named the burying of holy Moses. And 
Jesus gave account to Pilate, and we saw him 
scourged and receiving spitting on his face : and the 
soldiers put a crown of thorns on him, and he re¬ 
ceived sentence from Pilate; and then he was 
crucified, and they gave him gall and vinegar to 
drink; and two robbers were crucified with him, 
and the soldier Longinus pierced his side with a 
lance ; and our honorable father Joseph begged his 
body, and he has risen again, and, as they say, the 
three teachers have seen Him taken up into heaven. 
And Rabbi Levi has borne witness to what was 
said by Simeon the elder—that he has been set for 
the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for 
a sign which shall be spoken against. 

Then Didas, a teacher, said to all the assembly: 
If all the things which these have borne witness to 
have come to pass in Jesus,* they are from God, 
and let it not be wonderful in our eyes. The chiefs 
of the synagogue, and the priests and the Levites 
said to each other how our law holds, saying: His 
name shall be blessed forever : His place endureth 
before the sun, and his seat before the moon ; and 
all the tribes of earth shall be blessed in him, and 
all nations shall serve him ; and kings shall come 
from far, adoring and magnifying him. 


*And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which 
if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world 
itself could not contain the books that should be written, Amen. 
John xxi, 25. 



TISCHENDORF’S COMMENTS 

ON THE ACTS OF PILATE. 


In one of his most critical and learned works,* 
Tischendorf says: 

“Justin, in like manner as before, is the most an¬ 
cient voucher for this work, which is said to have 
been written under Pilate’s jurisdiction, and by 
reason of its specification of wonderful occurrences 
before, during and after the crucifixion, to have 
borne strong evidence to the divinity of Christ. 
Justin saw as little reason as Tertullian and others, 
for believing that it was a work of pious deception 
from a Christian hand.” [As has been alleged by 
opponents.] “On the contrary, Justin appeals to 
it twice in his first apology in order to confirm the 
accounts of the occurrences which took place at the 
crucifixion in accordance with prophecy, and of the 
miraculous healings effected by Christ, also the sub¬ 
ject of prophetic announcement. He cites specifi¬ 
cally (chap. 35) from Isaiah lxv. 2, and lviii. 2: 
‘I have spread out my hands all the day unto a re¬ 
bellious people which walketh in a way that was 
not good. They ask of me the ordinances of justice, 


^Origin of the Four Gospels, pp. 141 et. Seq. 




130 


tichendorf’s comments. 


they take delight in approaching to God. ’ Further, 
from the 22d Psalm : ‘They pierced my hands and 
my feet; they parted my garments upon them and 
cast lots upon my vesture.’ With reference to this 
he remarks that Christ fulfilled this; that he did 
stretch forth his hands when the Jews crucified him 
—the men who contended against Him and denied 
that he was Christ. ‘Then,’ he says further, ‘as 
the prophet foretold, they dragged him to the judg¬ 
ment seat, set him upon it and said, Judge us.’ The 
expression, however, ‘they pierced,’ etc,’ refers to 
the nails wi.h which they fastened his feet and hands 
to the cross. And after they had crucified him they 
threw lots for his clothing, and they who had taken 
part in the act of crucifixion divided it among them¬ 
selves. To this he adds : And you can learn from 
the Acts, composed during the governorship of 
Pontius Pilate that these things really happened.’ 

“•Still more explicit is the testimony of Tertullian. 
It maybe found in Apologeticus (chap. 2) where 
he says that out of envy Jesus was surrendered to 
Pilate by the Jewish ceremonial lawyers, and by 
him, after he had yielded to the cries of the people, 
given over for crucifixion ; that while hanging on 
the cross he gave up the ghost with a loud cry, and 
so anticipated the executioner’s duty ; that at that 
same hour the day was interrupted by a sudden 
darkness ; that a guard of soldiers was set at the 
grave for the purpose of preventing his disciples 
stealing his body, since he had predicted his resur¬ 
rection, but that on the third day the ground was 
suddenly shaken and the stone rolled away from be- 


tichendorf’s comments. 


137 


fore the sepulchre ; that in the grave nothing was 
found but the articles used in his burial; that the re¬ 
port was spread abroad by those who stood outside 
that the disciples had taken the body away ; that 
Jesus spent forty days with them in Galilee, teaching 
them what their mission should be, and that after 
giving them their instructions as to what they 
should preach, he was raised in a cloud to heaven. 
Tertullian closes this account with the words, ‘All 
this was reported to the Emperor at that time, Tibe¬ 
rius, by Pilate, his conscience having compelled 
even him to become a Christian.’ 

“The document now in our possession corres¬ 
ponds with this evidence of Justin and Tertullian. 
Even in the title it agrees with the account of Justin, 
although instead of the word acta, which he used, 
and which is manifestly much more Latin than Greek 
a Greek expression is employed which can be shown 
to have been used to indicate genuine Acts. The de¬ 
tails recounted by Justin and Tertullian are all found 
in our text of the Acts of Pilate, with this variation, 
that nothing corresponds to what is joined to the 
declaration of the prophet, ‘They dragged him to 
the seat of judgment and set him upon it and said.’ 
etc. Besides this, the casting lots for the vesture is 
expressed simply by the allusion to the division of 
the clothes. We must give even closer scrutiny to 
one point. Justin alludes to the miracles which 
were performed in fulfillment of Old Testament 
prophecy, on the lame, the dumb, the blind, the 
dead and on lepers. In fact, in our Acts of Pilate 
there are made to appear before the Roman gov- 


138 


tichendorf’s comments. 


ernor a palsied man who had suffered for thirty- 
eight years, and was brought in a bed by young 
men, and healed on the Sabbath day ; a blind man 
cured by the laying on of hands ; a cripple who had 
been restored; a leper who had been cleansed ; the 
woman whose issue of blood had been stanched, 
and a witness of the raising of Lazarus from the 
dead. Of that which Tertullian cites we will ad¬ 
duce merely the passage found in no one of our 
gospels, that Jesus passed forty days after his res- 
surrection in company with his disciples in Galilee. 

“This is indicated in our Acts of Pilate at the end 
of the fifteenth chapter, where the risen man is rep¬ 
resented as saying to Joseph: ‘For forty days go 
not out of thy house, for behold I go to my brethren 
in Galilee,’ 

“Every one will perceive how strongly the argu¬ 
ment that our Acts of Pilate are the same which 
Justin and Tertullian read is buttressed by these 
unexpected coincidences. The assertion recently 
made requires, consequently, no labored contradic¬ 
tion that the allusions to both men have grown out 
of their mere suspicion that there was such a record 
as the Acts of Pilate, or out of the circulation of a 
mere story about such a record, while the real work 
was written as the consequence of these allusions 
at the close of the third century. What an un¬ 
common fancy it requires in the two men to coin¬ 
cide so perfectly in a single production, as is the 
case in the Acts to which I am now referring. And 
are we to imagine that they referred with such em- 


tichendorf’s comments. 


139 


phasis as they employed to the mere creations of 
their fancy? 

“The question has been raised with more justice, 
whether the production in our possession may not 
have been a copy or a free revision of the old and 
primitive one. The modern change in the title has 
given support to this conjecture, for it has occa¬ 
sioned the work to be commonly spoken of as the 
Gospel of Nicodemus. But this title is borne 
neither by any Greek manuscript, the Coptic-Sahid- 
ian papyrus, nor the Latin manuscripts with the ex¬ 
ception of a few of the most recent. It may be 
traced only subsequently to the twelfth century, al¬ 
though at a very early period, in one of the two pre¬ 
faces attached to the work, Nicodemus is mentioned 
in one place as a Hebrew author and in another as 
a Greek translator. But aside from the title, the 
hand-writing displays great variation, and the two 
prefaces alluded to above show clearly the work of 
two hands. Notwithstanding this, however, there 
are decisive grounds for holding that our Acts of 
Pilate contains in its main substance the document 
drawn from Justin and Tertullian. The first of 
these to be noticed is, that the Greek text, as given 
in the version most widely circulated in the manu¬ 
scripts, is surprisingly corroborated by two docu¬ 
ments of the rarest character, and first used by my¬ 
self—a Coptic-Sahidian papyrus manuscript and a 
Latin palimpsest—both probably dating from the 
fifth century. Such a documentary confirmation of 
their text is possessed by scarcely ten works of the 
collective Greek classic literature. Both of these 


140 


tichendorf’s comments. 


ancient writings make it in the highest degree prob¬ 
able that the Egyptian and Latin translations which 
they contain were executed still earlier. 

‘•But could a work which was held in great con¬ 
sideration in Justin’s and Tertullian’s time and 
down to the commencement of the fourth century, 
and which strenuously insists that the Emperor 
Maximin caused other blasphemous Acts of Pilate 
to be published and zealously circulated, manifestly 
for the purpose of displacing and discrediting the 
older Christian Acts—could such a work suddenly 
change its whole form, and from the fifth century, 
to which in so extraordinary a manner translators, 
wholly different in character, point back with such 
wonderful Concurrence, continue in the new form ? 
Contrary as this is to all historical criticism, there 
is in the contents of the work, in the singular man¬ 
ner in which isolated and independent details are 
shown to be related to the canonical books, no less 
than in the accordance with the earliest quotations 
found in Justin and Tertullian, a guaranty of the 
greatest antiquity. 

“There are in the contents, also, matters of such 
a nature that we must confess that they are to be 
traced back to the primitive edition, as, for exam¬ 
ple, the narrative in the first chapter of the bring¬ 
ing forward of the accused. 

“It is incorrect, moreover, to draw a conclusion 
from Justin’s designation of the Acta which is not 
warranted by the whole character of the work. 
The Acta, the bTco/iv^/zara, are specified in Justin’s 
account not less than in the manuscripts which we 


tichendorf’s comments. 


141 


possess, as being written under Pontius Pilate, and 
that can signify nothing else than that they were 
an official production composed under the direct 
sanction of the Roman Governor.” 

Such are the remarks of Tischendorf in regard 
to the remarkable papers which have just been pre¬ 
sented. Whatever else he may have said of them 
in relation to their connection with our Scriptures, 
one thing he has most clearly affirmed, viz., that 
u e are to-day in -possession of the records trans¬ 
mitted by Pilate to the Roman Emperor, as seen 
by Justin, referred to by Tertullian, and as alluded 
to by Eusebius. The simple question remaining to 
be settled by the reader is this : Are we to accept 
them as Justin, Tertullian and Eusebius did, as the 
official statements of Pilate, originating in his pro- 
curatorship in Judea, and written under his know¬ 
ledge and with his sanction, or are we to assume as 
some have done, that these three eminent men spoke 
and wrote of matters of the highest importance to 
all coming generations without a correct apprecia¬ 
tion of what they were doing? It requires great 
hardihood to cast aside the plain and emphatic 
statements of Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Euse¬ 
bius ? made by Justin at least to the Roman Senate, 
an educated Emperor, and to philosphers, and kept 
alive from A. d. 138 down to A. d. 315. 

Now the first question to be settled is : Have we 
those Acts of Pilate? 

To prove that we have, is the object before us 
in the quoting of the foregoing. We ask the 
reader to examine carefully again what Dr. Tis- 


142 


ticiiendorf’s comments. 


chendorf has said in relation to “Our Acts of Pi¬ 
late.” Now it is simpty impossible to go behind 
this record. The examination of the oldest exist¬ 
ing manuscripts of these records was carefully made 
by this eminent scholar, who is their discoverer— 
the body of the text, the prologue, in their hand¬ 
writing and other particulars being carefully made. 
A searching comparison of their contents with the 
description given by the apologists of the original 
is carefully made : in short, all the skill exercised 
in the severest historical and linguistic criticism is 
brought to bear in the examination : and the result 
reached is the fixed conclusion that “ we have the 
documents known to and used by Justin and TertuU 
Han. ” This is Dr. Tischendorf’s deliberate conclu¬ 
sion : substantiated by a cofirmation of their text, 
“which,” he says, “ is -possessed by scarcely ten 
works of the collective Greek classic literature .” 
This is the conclusion of the great Dr. Tischendorf, 
whose ability in such investigations the reader may 
gather from the sketch of him given in this volume. 
Who will say that he is mistaken? Who will set 
up a higher claim to ability as a literary archaeol¬ 
ogist? Few, indeed will say “I.” And this is as 
far as we need go in this department of the enquiry. 
The arguments and investigations made by this 
eminent scholar were written in 1867—since which 
date we are not aware that any abler critic has 
handled the manuscripts of Tischendorf, or contra¬ 
dicted the statements he then made. So that, at this 
writing, we rest in the conclusion that we have the 


tichendorf’s comments. 


143 


records of Pilate as known to Justin, Tertullian and 
Eusebius. 

The second question to be settled is: Did Justin 
and Tertullian use, or were they acquainted with 
Acts of Pilate really and truly drawn up under Pi¬ 
late? 

The answer to this question by a negative would 
involve Christianity in serious difficulty. It would 
require the most absurd conjectures, or else prove 
that both advocates and opponents conspired to im¬ 
pose upon posterity a most wretched religious fraud. 
More than one Christian historian has regarded this 
whole matter as a “pious fraud.” A pious fraud, 
indeed! 

How could Justin impose a fraud of this charac¬ 
ter on Crescens the philospher, and the emperor 
and his philospher sons, and on the “Sacred Senate” 
he addresses in relation to the proofs of Christ’s di¬ 
vinity as reported in Pilate’s official statement to Ti¬ 
berius? To any one acquainted with the parties 
and their intelligence and surroundings, such a sup¬ 
position is simply absurd? A philospher addressing 
a Roman senate, bringing in the testimony of a 
procurator and his reported testimony with a bare 
fiction ! Why did not Crescens convict Justin of 
this? Certainly he was eager to do so. Why could 
he hear Justin repeat the statement twice in one 
address, “That the emperor and all might easily 
know the divinity of Jesus from the Acts drawn up 
under Pontius Pilate” if it were false? W’hy not 
have Justin beheaded then and there, as was after¬ 
ward done at the instigation of this same Crescens, 


144 


tichendorf’s comments. 


for religious heresy against the gods of Rome? 
Does this look like fiction in Justin? Does it look 
like a “worthless story,” as some would have it? 
The value of the “story” was this, as given by Jus¬ 
tin in Section 48 of his Apology : “And that it was 
foretold by the prophet that our Christ should heal 
all diseases and raise the dead.” * * * “That 

he (Christ) performed these things you may easily 
be satisfied from the Acts of Pontius Pilate.” 

This is the “worthless story” twice told in one 
address “to the emperor, to the senate, and the 
whole people at Rome.” 

But this is not all of the “story.” Justin had such 
remarkable skill and success in telling it, that Ter- 
tullian, who has been fitly called the Christian 
Hannibal—Tertullian, the lawyer, the first among 
the writers of the Latin fathers—takes up the same 
“story” and still more explicitly sets it forth to an¬ 
other emperor. He for the second time places the 
Roman procurator on the stand to prove by his 
official records the divinity of Jesus. Was this the 
mere statement of a fiction, a practice of the same 
old “fraud” long ago, in Justin’s time, told to the 
senate and the philosphers who were in deadly op¬ 
position to any such statement? 

What hardihood it must have required in Justin 
to inaugurate such a fraud, if it were fraud ; What 
audacity in Tertullian to repeat it afterward ! 

The story of the Acts of Pilate does not end here, 
however. Long afterwards Eusebius, “the father 
of church history,” takes the pains to set it firmly 
upon the page of history ; to tell of its then existence 


tichendorf’s comments. 


145 


even in documents used by the Christians, and to 
give an account of the attempt at the destruction of 
the Acts of Pilate, and of a substitution in their 
place of other blasphemous Acts plainly for the pur¬ 
pose of counteracting or destroying the authority 
and force of the original Acts. So that, from the 
year A. D. 138 down to 315, this “story” was kept 
alive by these three mighty men of the Church. 
And if this proceeding was a frand, a mere fiction 
based upon the bold invention or deception of Justin 
it may be said that its parallel is not excelled in his¬ 
tory. It may be truly affirmed, that if the resurrec¬ 
tion and miracles of Jesus were by these men fraudu¬ 
lently put up as “the Acts drawn up under the pro¬ 
curator Pilate,” and were so claimed in public apol¬ 
ogies to philosophers, senates and emperors, as being- 
quoted from state records of Rome, then there is no 
escape from fraud and fiction in such an age. 

No dependence can be placed in the honesty of 
men who would knowing^ practise such a decep¬ 
tion, and but little more in men who could igno¬ 
rantly press such a myth or falsehood as truth. It 
is an index of character which unerringly points 
them out as the basest falsifiers and boldest de¬ 
ceivers, or as the weakest and most credulous ot 
men. Such were not Justin, Tertullian and Euse¬ 
bius. Any one of them may at times have been de¬ 
ceived in regard to minor affairs in the life of their 
Master, but it is almost impossible that all three, on 
the most vital point in their system of religion, 
should so long and so persistently have kept up this 
story of the Acts of Pilate, as containing official in- 


146 


tichendorf’s comments. 


formation going to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ. 
And were this not a most vital point, we should feel 
like apologizing to the reader for having so length¬ 
ily laid before him so much as has been said of this 
matter. 

The learned Lardner, whom we have quoted at 
great length, together with many of the ablest 
writers of the Church, would not so elaborately have 
written had' it not been their conviction that such 
testimony as Pilate bore to the divinity of our Lord 
was of the very highest import to every man who has 
any concern in the matter of religion. 

They felt that this Roman procurator’s official 
statesments must be of a character so disinterested 
and so undeniable that they have labored in a very 
lengthy, learned, and fair manner to impress the 
truth merely that Pilate did make a report to Tibe¬ 
rius favorable to the Saviour’s claims. 

And because of the importance of this point, we 
insist upon it, and would again ask the candid- 
minded reader to review the life and character of 
each of these witnesses:—Justin Martyr, “who by 
the splendour of his name overshadowed all the 
great men who illuminated the second century; ’ ’ 
Tertulian, “one of the most highly esteemed Ro¬ 
mans, of great natural endowments, supplemented 
by a comprehensive course of studies whose fruit 
appears in the wealth of historical, legal, philosoph¬ 
ical, physical and antiquarian elements contained in 
his writings, and whose legal ability sheds light on 
many disputed points of Roman civil lawEuse¬ 
bius, who is admitted to have “excelled in erudition 


tichendorf’s comments. 


147 


nil the church fathers, not excepting scarcely Ori- 
gen and Jerome:”—these are the men who inaug¬ 
urated and kept alive before philosophers, senates 
and emperors in set defences, apologies and history, 
the affirmation “that Pilate officially reported to 
Tiberius Caesar facts concerning the life and cru¬ 
cifixion of Jesus ot Nazareth manifesting his di¬ 
vinity.” They kept this affirmation alive by re¬ 
peating it before these philosophers, “the senate of 
Rome, and the whole Roman people,” from A. D. 
138 till the beginning of the fourth century. This 
can not be denied in the light of their writings and 
in the face of their solemn declarations. We must 
accept it, or else lay under suspicion the veracity or 
the intelligence of these three great men—on a 
point of history than which there can be none of 
greater import; and which suspicion must cleave to 
much else they have placed on record. 


DEATH WARRANT 

SENTENCE RENDERED BY PONTIUS PILATE, THAT 
JESUS OF NAZARETH SHALL SUFFER DEATH 
ON THE CROSS 


SENTENCE.* 

*The Sentence here is a translation from a Hebrew inscription 
on a copper-plate tablet, first discovered a. d. 1200 , while excavating 
for antiquities at Aquila, the site of the ancient Amiternum, whose 
ruins are still to be seen near St. Vittorino, 53 miles N. E. of Rome. 
It was subsequently brought into prominence by Dominique Vivant 
Denon, the great French archaeologist—born at Chalon-sur-Saone, 
1747 , died at Paris. 1825 . On the reverse side of the tablet is in¬ 
scribed : “Alike plate is sent to each of the tribes.” For life; 
labours, etc., of Denon, see Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. vii., Art. 
Denon. 

The attention bestowed upon the tablet containing the “Death 
Warrant of Christ” was the cause of its insertion at the conclusion 
of these jremarkable papers. This tablet bears genuine marks 
of antiquity, having been handled by those well skilled in such 
matters ; and it is in the style of legal proceedings at the time. The 
allusion made to Cornelius is a singularly interesting one, inasmuch 
as it renders it possible, if not probable, that he is the same Corne¬ 
lius alluded to in the New Testament narrative, as the first con¬ 
vert among the Gentiles under the preaching of Peter. That ac¬ 
count also makes Cornelius a captain of the Italian band dwelling 
at Caesarea, Pilate’s old head-quarters. (See Acts of Apos. x. i.) 

And as it is likely that Pilate took Cornelius, mentioned here, 
along with him from Caesarea up to the feast at Jerusalem, and it is 
scarcely probable that there were two men of this name, both cen- 



DEATH WARRANT. 


149 


“In the year seventeen of the empire of Tiberius 
Caesar, and the 24th of March, the city of the Holy 
Jerusalem : Annas and Caiaphas being priests, sac- 
rificators of the people of God, I. Pontius Pilate, 
governor of the praetory, condemn Jesus of Naza¬ 
reth to die on the cross between two theives—the 
great and notorious evidence of the people saying— 

“1. He is a seducer. 

“2. He is seditious. 

“3. He is the enemy of the law. 

“4. He calls himself, falsely, the Son of God. 

“5. He calls himself the King of Israel. 

“6. He entered into the Temple, followed by a 
multitude bearing palm branches in their hands. 

“Order the centurion, Quintius Cornelius, to lead 
him to the place of execution. 

“Forbid any person whomsoever, poor or rich, to 
oppose the death of Jesus. 

“The witnesses that signed the death of Jesus 
are : 

“1. Daniel, Rabbi, Pharisee. “2. Joannes, Rabbi. 
“3. Raphael Rorobable. “4. Capet, a citizen. 

“Jesus shall go out of the city by the gate ‘Stru- 
enus.’ 


turions, and both dwelling at Caesarea, we feel it almost certain that 
Cornelius is the same mentioned here and in the New Testament. 

The Cornelius of the New Testament was undoubtedly a foreigner, 
a heathen Gentile, and most likely a Roman—and one who, it would 
seem probable from this reference to him here—well acquainted with 
the wonderful phenomena exhibited at the crucifixion. He, how- 
over, is not the soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a spear 
his name being given as Longinus, in the Acts of Pilate. 



REPORT OF PILATE 

( VA TIC AN MANUSCRIPT.) 


The following Report is a translation from a very old Latin manu¬ 
script in the Vatican Library, Rome. 


Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Caesar, Emperor, 
Sends Greeting: 

The events of those last few days were of such a 
character in my province that I have thought I 
should write concerning them in detail, since I 
should not wonder if in coming years, they may 
change the fortune of our nation ; for it seems of 
late that the gods have ceased to be friends. It is 
not far from me to say, “Cursed be the day on 
which I succeeded Valerius Gratus in the govern¬ 
ment of Judea.”* When I came up to Jerusalem 


*It was customary for the Roman procurators to go up to Jeru¬ 
salem at such a time for the trial of such matters as might come be¬ 
fore the Jewish council. And it is most probable that Pilate went 
up at this time filled with the gravest apprehensions of the results of 
this very trial of Jesus. For it will be remembered by all who have 
paid any attention to this department of history that Jesus was by 
no means an insignificant person at this time. 

He had, by his life and teachings, made himself not only obnoxious 




REPORT OF PILATE. 


151 


and occupied the Pretorium, I ordered a banquet to 
be splendidly prepared, to which I invited the tet- 
rarch of Galilee with his high priests and his pre¬ 
fects,* * At the appointed time no guests were 
present, which thing was an insult to my dignity. 
After a few days it pleased the high priest to call 
on me. He bore himself gravely and deceitfully. 
He feigned that his religion forbade him and his 
companions to sit down and offer up libations with 


to orthodox Jewry as an opposer -and a destroyer of some time- 
honored laws and religious ceremonies, but, in the language of to¬ 
day, was looked upon as a political reformer and disturber, whose 
influence was felt and acknowledged by the masses of the people. 
And though his acts and his teaching may have been looked upon by 
the Jews with much uneasy suspicion and even dreadful apprehen¬ 
sion, yet they had been done with such prudence, judgment and wis¬ 
dom that it was difficult to arrest the tide of his influence except by 
a resort to very arbitrary and very questionable acts on the part of 
either the Roman or Jewish authorities. 

*Pilate was at this time not the most popular governor among the 
Jews. He had committed several acts of a character very offensive 
to them in the former years of his administration. 

The most natural and politic thing for him to do, therefore, as a 
shrewd politician, was to court the friendship of the Jewish leaders 
and officials. And as nothing is better calculated to soften and con¬ 
ciliate men of this type than social feasting, this banquet seems to 
have been a happy and very natural thought in the mind of Pilate. 

The Jews, however, seem to have been quite as skillful in political 
tact as the governor himself, on this occasion at least, and refused to 
be brought into any such relation as seems to have been in the mind 
of the governor Pilate to induce. This appears very fully from the 
language used immediately after by Pilate: He “ feigned that his 
religion forbade him,’’etc. This, at least seems to have been Pilate’s 
view concerning the Jew’s refusal to accept his invitation, although 
the “excuse” offered by the high priest may have been sincere and 
most proper. 



152 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


the Romans. It seemed to me politic to accept his 
excuse,* but from that time I was convinced that the 
conquered were the professed enemies of their con¬ 
querors! Of all the cities which had been over- 


*Pilate seems determined, by every statement made in this imme¬ 
diate connection, to carry his point with the emperor as against the 
Jewish priests. His charge against the high priest of grave and 
well-studied deceit in manner on his visit, of his feigning or lying 
about not attending the feast, and of his (Pilate’s) being compelled 
from good policy to accept the “excuse” or lie of the high priest, are 
all laid down as premises to the conclusion which Pilate would im¬ 
press on the mind of Tiberus, viz: '■'■that the conquered were the ene- 
mies of the conquerors ,” and that this was especially the case in 
Jerusalem, the stage upon which had been played this terrible drama 
now big with omens of more seditions in the Roman govern¬ 
ment of Judea. 

It will be remembered by the reader that this was a leading feature 
in this great trial of Jesus, as related to Pilate and the Jewish 
priesthood, viz: the settlement of the question as to “who was 
Coesar’s friend in this matter;” and Pilate is still at work in the 
settlement of this question by laying before the emperor the exact 
position of himself, as also of the priesthood as related to the entire 
matter. 

+The difficulty with which Jerusalem’s turbulence was restrained, 
is well attested by appeals to the history of many events occuring 
from the very time of her subjugation till her complete destruction 
by the Romans. 

The madness of her people culminated when it could not listen to 
such an appeal for peace as was made by their own king Agrippa 
just before the final and general conflict which resulted in the over¬ 
throw and demolition of the city and temple by Titus. 

To one who would see the climax of madness in this people, the 
reader is referred to the masterly speech of Agrippa as quoted in the 
Summary Appendix of this work, page 348 . 

See also speech of the high priest Ananus as given in the Article 
on Annas and Caiaphas, page 273 . 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


153 


come, it appeared to me that Jerusalem was the 
Tnost difficult to be held in subjection. So turbu¬ 
lent were the people that 1 was in perpetual fear of 
a sedition,* for repressing which there was one cen¬ 
turion only, and a small band of soldiers. I had re¬ 
quested aid from the prefect of Syria, who an¬ 
nounced to me that he had scarcely sufficient troops 
for defense of his own province. I fear that the in¬ 
satiate thirst of conquering beyond what we are 
able to defend shall lose to us our noble government. 
Among the many rumors which were borne to my 
ears, one especially occupied my mind. A young 
man had come into Galilee, it was said, teaching 
with a noble zeal anew law in the name of the gods 


*To what degree, and to what a degraded state the government of 
the city fell after this, will be seen in a sentence of Josephus, their 
own historian, descriptive of the times of Agrippa and under the 
high priest Ismael the Son of Fabi. 

“About this time king Agrippa gave the high priesthood to Ismael, 
who was the son of Fabi. And now arose a sedition between the 
high priests and the principal men of the multitude of Jerusalem; 
.each of whom got them a company of the boldest sort of men, and 
of those that loved innovations, about them, and became leaders to 

them; and when they struggled together, they did it by casting re¬ 
proachful words against one another, and by throwing stones also. 
And there was nobody to reprove them; but these disorders were 
■done after a licentious manner in the city, as if it had no govern¬ 
ment over it. And such was the impudence and boldness that had 
-seized on the high priest, that they had the hardness to send their 
servants into the threshing-floors, to take away those tithes that were 
due to the priests : insomuch that it so fell out that the poorer sort 
of the priests died for want. To this degree did the violence of the 
seditious prevail over all right and justice. Antiquities, Book xx, 
chap, viii, 8. 



154 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


who had sent him. At first I feared his design 
might be to stir up the people against the Romans ; 
but soon my fears were borne away. Jesus, the 
Nazarene, spoke more as a friend of the Romans 
than of the Jews. One day going by the place of 
Siloam, at which there was a great concourse of 
people, I saw a young man in the midst of the as¬ 
sembly, who, leaning against a tree, calmly 
addressed the multitude. I was told that it was 
Jesus. This I could have easily suspected, such 
was the difference between him and his hearers. 
His hair and beard of golden yellow, gave a ce¬ 
lestial aspect. He appeared to be about thirty 
years old. Never have I seen a gentler or more 
serene countenance.* What a difference between 


*There is a description of the personal appearance of Jesus given: 
by'Epiphanius, discovered by Tischendorf in the original Greek form, 
and is as follows. 

Christ was exceedingly beautiful'in countenance. His stature was- 
fully developed, his height being six feet. He had auburn hair, 
quite abundant and flowing down mostly over his whole person. His 
eyebrows were black and not highly arched, his eyes brown, and. 
bright. 

He had a family likeness, in his fine eyes, prominent nose and 
good color, to his ancestor David, who is said to have had beautiful 
eyes and a ruddy complexion. 

He wore his hair long, for a razor never touched it, nor was it cut 
by any person except by his mother in childhood. His neck inclined 
forward a little so that the posture of his body was not too upright 
or stiff. 

His face was full, but not quite so round as his mother’s; tinged 
with sufficient color to make it handsome and natural; mild in ex¬ 
pression, of the blandness of his mother whose features his own re¬ 
sembled. (Cod. Ven. ci. i. Tischendorf.) 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


155 


him and those listening, with their black beards and 
tawny complexion. Since I was unwilling to in¬ 
terrupt him by my presence. I pursued my walking, 
but gave a sign to my secretary that he should draw 
near to the crowd and listen.* * The name of my 


Epiphanius who spent many years at Bethlehem and gathered 
many facts concerning Jesus and his mother Mary, thus writes of 
her : She was of middle stature, her face oval, her eyes brilliant and 
of an olive tint; her eyebrows arched and black, her hair a pale 
brown, her complexion fair as wheat. 

She spoke little, but she spoke freely and affably. She was grave, 
courteous, tranquil. In her deportment was nothing lax or feeble. 

St. Denis, the Areopagite, who is said to have seen Mary in her 
lifetime declared that, “she was cf dazzling beauty, that he would 
have adored her as a goddess had he not known that there was but 
one God!” 

According to Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. viii, 18 ) the woman who was 
cured of hemorrhage (Matt, ix, 20 .) out of thankfulness erected a 
brazen statue of Jesus at Caesarea Philippi. 

Sozomen states that this statue was destroyed by command of the 
emperor Julian, who renounced Christianity and became a heathen, 
in religion because of bitterness towards his relatives. 

See also Sir Edwin Arnold in “The Light of the World” pp. 140 . 

*Pilate, like Herod and other Roman officials in Palestine, kept a 
close watch of course on all persons like John the Baptist and Jesus. 

Herod it will be remembered, before whom Jesus appeared during 
this trial, had put John the Baptist to death, after confining him in 
prison “lest the great influence John had over the people might put 
into his power an inclination to raise a rebellion, for the people 
seemed to do anything that John might advise.” Josephus Antiq. 
Book 18 , 5 . 

And Pilate leaves his secretary, Manlius, to listen to the words of 
Jesus no doubt for the reason that he feared that Jesus might be 
dealing in matters of politics. He does not wait, himself, but leaves 
his secretary to listen and report as to what aim Jesus was pressing 
on the people, and finding out from Manlius that Jesus was not en- 



156 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


secretary was Manlius. He was the grandson of 
the leader of the conspirators, who were encamped 
in Etruria awaiting Cataline. Manlius was an old 
inhabitant of Judea, and knew the Hebrew language 
well. He was devoted to me, and worthy of my 
confidence. On entering the Pretorium, I found 
Manlius, who related to me the words spoken at Si- 
loam. Never have 1 heard from the Portico, nor in 
the works of the philosophers, anything that can be 
compared with the maxims of Jesus. When a cer¬ 
tain one of the rebellious Jews, who are so numerous 
in Jerusalem, asked him whether it were lawful to 
give tribute to Caesar, Jesus answered: “Render 
unto Caesar the things which are his, and unto God 
the things which are God’s.” 

It was on account of the wisdom* * of this saying 


gaged in any revolutionary mission he gives himself no further con¬ 
cern in relation to the matter, but rather favors the sentiments 
entertained and expressed by Jesus by granting him the largest per¬ 
mission to teach and preach, and make disciples. 

*Pilate was doubtless a political friend to Jesus. 

His appointment by Tiberius to the office of Procurator makes it 
certain that he was of the same political sentiment with the emperor, 
and we know that Tiberius was a liberal, a man of the people and 
in favor of popular rights. He was no man for patrician privileges. 

We also know that the rulers among the Jews sympathized with 
the Roman aristocracy. Huidekoper, the highest authority on this 
subject, informs us that: The aristocracy at Jerusalem, as depicted 
by Josephus and the New Testament writers, were, with slight ex¬ 
ceptions more devoted to class privileges than the common welfare. 

Herod, the Great, and Herod Agrippa Senior, who were closely 
in league with the patricians, found support in the aristocracy of 
Judea, rather than among the lower and middle classes* Huide- 
koper’s Judaism at Rome pp. 96. 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


157 


that I granted so much liberty to the Nazarene, for 
it was in my power to have him arrested and exiled 
to Pontus ; but this would have been contrary to the 
justice which has always characterized the Romans. 
This man was neither seditious nor rebellious. I 
extended to him my protection, unknown, perhaps, 


It cannot be otherwise than that politically Jesus, Pilate and 
Tiberius were one, as against aristocracy in Judea and patricianism 
at Rome. And it is for this reason that Pilate speaks as he does in 
the language referred to by this note. 

We quote here in point a paragraph and a note from Huidekoper’s 
Judiasm at Rome pp. 188. 

As a first step towards crippling Tiberius, the Senate expelled the 
Jews and their converts from Rome or Italy, after having impressed 
four thousand of their younger men and shut them up in Sardinia, 
an island under Senatorial control, where they would be unavailable 
for the popular party. The Senate also instituted an inquisition 
which, as we may infer from the fears of Seneca’s father, must have 
been unsparing, touching any who held Jewish views, and we can 
safely infer that it would have shown little or no justice to political 
opponents. Tiberius at once exerted himself to protect the Jews, 
in such provinces as he controlled. 

“Action was also held touching expulsion of the Egyptian and 
Jewish religions, and a decree was enacted by the Senate, ‘that four 
thousand freedmen of suitable age, who were infected with that [the 
Jewish] superstition, should be deported to the island of Sardinia to 
restrain the robbers there, and, if they perish by the severity of the 
climate, the loss would be a cheap one; that the others should quit 
Italy, unless before a fixed day they had renounced their profane 
rites.’”—Tacitus, An. 2, 85. If the former “perished” it was prob¬ 
ably by murder. 

Some of these freedmen, instead of being born Jews, may origi¬ 
nally have been Gentiles. Dio Cassius says: “I do not know 
whence this appellation (Jews) originated, but it applies to such 
OTHER MEN AS ARE DEVOTED TO THEIR INSTITUTIONS, EVEN IF 
FROM OTHER NATIONS.'*— Dio CaSS. 37, 17. 



158 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


to himself. He was at liberty to act, to speak, to 
assemble and address the people, to choose disciples 
unrestrained by any pretorian mandate. Should it 
ever happen—may the gods avert the omen—I say 
should it ever happen that the religion of our ances¬ 
tors* be supplanted by the religion of Jesus, it will 


*The decline in “the religion of our ancestors” mentioned here by 
Pilate had already begun at Rome as early as A. D. 47 and the effect 
of “foreign superstitions” viz, Jewish and Christian influences was 
felt to an alarming extent. We give here a picture of the Roman 
religion as practiced by the ancient Romans with so much devotion, 
and also a mention by Tacitus of the declining state of religious 
affairs ten years after Pilate’s government of Judea. 

Here is the picture of the life of a well-born Roman, from “The 
Ancient City,” by M. Fustel de Coulanges: “Each one of his daily 
actions is a rite; his whole day belongs to his religion. Morning and 
and evening he invokes his fire, his penates, and his ancestors; in 
leaving and entering his house he addresses a prayer to them. Every 
meal is a religious act, which he shares with his domestic divinities. 

“He leaves his house, and can hardly take a step without meeting 
some sacred object—either a chapel, or a place formerly struck by 
lightning, or a tomb; sometimes he must step back and pronounce a 
prayer; sometimes he must turn his eyes and cover his face, to avoid 
the sight of some ill-boding object. 

“Every day he sacrifices in his house, every month in his curia 
several months a year, with his gens or his tribe. Above all these 
gods, he must offer worship to those of the city. There are in 
Rome more gods than citizens. 

“He offers sacrifices to thank the gods; he offers them, and by far 
the greater number, to appease their wrath. * * * There is a 

festival for seed-time, one for harvest, and one for the pruning of 
the vines. Before corn has reached the ear, the Roman has offered 
more than ten sacrifices, and invoked some ten divinities, for the suc¬ 
cess of his harvest. He has, above all, a number of festivals for the 
dead, because he is afraid of them. He never leaves his own house 
without looking to see if any bird of bad augury appears. There 
are words which he dares not pronounce for his life. If he exper- 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


159 


lie to this noble toleration that Rome shall owe her 
premature obsequies; while I, miserable wretch, 
shall have been the instrument of what the Hebrews 
call providence, and we, destiny. 


iences some desire, he inscribes his wish upon a tablet, which he 
places at the feet of the statue of a divinity. 

“He steps out of his house always with his right foot first. He 
lias his hair cut only during the full moon. He carries amulets upon 
his person. He covers the walls of his house with magic inscriptions 
against fire. He knows of formulas for avoiding sickness, and of 
others for curing it, but he must repeat them twenty-seven times, and 
spit in certain fashion at each repetition. 

“He does not deliberate in the senate if the victims have not given 
favorable signs. He leaves the assembly of the people if he hears 
the cry of a mouse. He renounces the best-laid plans if he perceives 
a bad presage, or if an ill-omened word has struck his ear; he is 
brave in battle, but on condition that the auspices assure him the 
victory. 

“This Roman, whom we present here, is not the mart of the peo¬ 
ple, the feeble-minded man whom misery and ignorance have made 
superstitious. We are speaking of the patrician, the noble, power¬ 
ful, and rich man. This patrician is, by turns, warrior, magistrate, 
consul, farmer, merchant; but everywhere and always he is a priest, 
and his thoughts are fixed upon the gods.” 

In the days of Pilate’s procuratorship this state of affairs had 
greatly declined—and as stated above, his fear of “the religion of his 
ancestors being supplanted by the religion of Jesus” was being now 
realized only ten years after his departure from Judea. 

Tacitus tells us, under a. d. 47, Claudius “called the attention of 
the senate to the college of soothsayers, that the oldest [religious] 
science of Italy might not die out through neglect. [He said that] 
■‘often during adverse circumstances of the republic [persons] had been 
sent for, by whose direction ceremonies had been re-established and 
thereafter more correctly conducted; [that] the nobility, primores, 
of P2truria had of their own accord, or under prompting from the 
Roman Fathers retained the knowledge and taught it to their 
slaves, in familias propagasse , which was now more negligently 



160 REPORT OF PILATE. 

But this unlimited freedom granted to Jesus pro¬ 
voked the Jews ; not the poor, but the rich and pow¬ 
erful. It is true that Jesus was severe on the latter ? 
and this was a political reason, in my opinion, why 
I should not control the liberty of the Nazarene. 
“Scribes and Pharisees,” he would say to them, 
“you are a race of the vilest sort. You are like 
painted sepulchres.” At other times he would de¬ 
ride the proud alms of the publican, saying to him 
that the mite of the widow was greater in the eye of 
God. New complaints were made daily at the Pre- 
torium concerning the insolence of Jesus. I was 
even informed that some misfortune would befall 
him ; that it would not be the first time that Jerusa¬ 
lem had stoned those who called themselves 
prophets, and that if the Pretorium should refuse 
justice, appeal would be made to Cagsar. Neverthe¬ 
less, my conduct was pleasing to the Senate, and I 
was promised‘aid after the Parthian war was ended. 
Since I was too weak to suppress a sedition, I 
resolved upon a plan to give quiet to the city, yet 
not to lay aside the authority of the Pretorium. I 


done because of public apathy towards good arts, and because 
FOREIGN SUPERSTITIONS ARE GAINING STRENGTH. All things in¬ 
deed, are at present [he said] prosperous, but thanks should be given 
to the benignity of the gods.’ 

“That the sacred rites should not, through uncertainity touching 
[the manner of] their observance, be obliterated by [existing] pros¬ 
perity, it was thereupon enacted by the senate that the chief priests- 
should examine what observances of the soothsayers ought to be re¬ 
tained and put upon a better footing.”—Tacitus, An. n, 15; Huide- 
koper’s, Judaism at Rome, p. 225. 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


161 


sent a message to Jesus, desiring that he should 
come to me at the Pretorium. You know that the 
Spanish,* mixed with the Roman blood is in my 
veins, equally incapable of fear and childish emo¬ 
tion. When the Nazarene made his appearance 
1 was walking in my basilic, and my feet seemed 
fastened with an iron hand to the marble pavement, 
and I trembled in every limb as a culprit, while he 
was calm—the Nazarene—calm as innocence. 
When he came up to me he stopped, and by a sign 
seemed to say, “I am here.” For awhile I con¬ 
templated with admiration and awe this extraordi¬ 
nary type of man, unknown to the many painters 
who have given form and figure to all the gods and 
heroes. 

“Jesus,” said I to Him at length, and my tongue 
faltered, “Jesus of Nazareth, I have granted you for 
the last three years ample freedom of speech, nor 
do I regret it. Your words are those of a sage. I 


*This mention of “Spanish blood” by Pilate, is a singular one, and 
it is not known whether he was by descent a Spaniard or not. 

Many of the chief Romans were natives of Spain. Trajan, the 
Emperor, was born near Seville. 

The House of Pilate, at Seville, is an edifice of interest in this 
connection, inasmuch as it was erected on the plans of the dwelling 
of Pilate at Jerusalem. It was built on a foundation of earth 
brought from Pilate’s old House at Jerusalem, by the first Marquis, of 
Tarifa, — sufficient earth being brought from the site of the old edi¬ 
fice to form the foundations of the building at Seville, which was 
erected, as before stated, on the plans of the very house that was 
occupied by Pilate at Jerusalem, and, therefore, gives us a good idea 
of the very palace in which he lived, while he made headquarteis in 
the latter city. 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


162 

know not whether you have read Socrates and Plato,* 
but this I do know, that there is in your discourses a 
majestic simplicity that elevates you far above these 
philosophers. The emperor is informed of it, and 
I his humble representative in this country, am glad 
of having allowed the liberty of which you are so 
worthy. However, I must not conceal from you 
that yonr discourses have raised up against you 


*Socrates, though one of the wisest Greeks, did not teach any system 
of philosophy, but aimed rather to put his disciples in the way ol 
finding the truth for themselves. He was unattractive in person, 
humble,and simple in life; he received no payment for his teachings, 
but taught in the street or the market-place, wherever any chose to 
listen. The greatest of his disciples was Plato, the founder of the 
Academic School, so called because his lectures were given in the 
grove of Academus, near a gate at Athens. 

We are indebted to Plato for most of what we know of Socrates; 
for a great portion of his writings is made up of dialogues, in which 
Socrates had part. His own Philosophy is the highest and purest of 
which the ancient world could boast. 

Socrates was condemned on a false charge of having introduced a 
new worship and corrupted the Athenian youth. Socrates was, in 
fact, too wise to believe in all the superstitions of the Greeks; but 
he was also too prudent to destroy the childish faith of his pupils 
until they were able to receive something better in the place of it. 
He refused to accept his life on the condition of forbearing to teach; 
for the great aim and passion of his life was to promote virtue and 
wisdom in the young. 

He spent thirty days of his imprisonment in cheerful converse with 
his friends, expressing to the last his firm conviction of the soul’s 
immortality. When the appointed moment arrived, he drank the 
poison hemlock and calmly expired. (See Thalheimers Gen. His.) 

Pilate mentions to Jesus here, moreover, that his character had 
been made known to the Emperor Tiberius; which is not unlikely, 
as Tiberius was a lover of any information concerning great char¬ 
acters—like Jesus—Socrates and Plato. 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


163 


powerful and inveterate enemies. Nor is this sur¬ 
prising. Socrates had his enemies, and he fell a 
victim to their hatred. Yours are doubly incensed 
against you, on account of your sayings and on ac¬ 
count of the liberty extended toward you. They 
even accuse me* of being indirectly leagued with 
you for the purpose of depriving the Hebrews of the 
little civil power which Rome has left them. My 
request —I do not say my order—is, that you be 
more circumspect in the future, and more tender in 
arousing the pride of your enemies, lest they raise 
against you the stupid populace, and compel me to 
employ the instruments of justice.” 

The Nazarene calmly replied: “Prince of the 
earth, your words proceed not from true wisdom. 
Say to the torrent, stop in the midst of the moun¬ 
tain home, because it will uproot the trees of the 
valley. The torrent will answer you, that it must 
obey the laws of the Creator. God alone knows 
whither flows the torrent. Verily, I say unto you, 
before the rose of Sharon blossoms the blood of the 
just shall be spilt.” 

“Your blood shall not be spilt,” replied I, with 
emotion. “You are more precious in my estima¬ 
tion, on account of your wisdom, than all the tur¬ 
bulent and proud Pharisees, who abuse the freedom 
granted them by the Romans, conspire against 
Caesar and construe our bounty into fear. Insolent 
wretches, they are not aware that the wolf of the 
Tiber* sometimes clothes himself with the skin of 


*The “Wolf of the Tiber” is doubtless an allusion to Romulus and 



164 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


the sheep. I will protect you against them. My 
Pretorium is open to you as an asylum. ’ ’ 

Jesus carelessly shook his head, and with a grace 
and divine smile said: “When the day shall have 
come, there will be no asylum for the Son of Man, 
neither in the earth nor under the earth. The asy¬ 
lum of the just is there” (pointing to the heavens.) 
“That which is written in the books of the prophets 
must be accomplished. ’ ’ 

“Young man,” answered I mildly, “you oblige 
me to convert my request into an order. The 
safety of the province which is confided to my care 
requires it. You must observe more moderation in 
your discourses. Do not infringe. My orders, you 
know. May happiness attend you. Farewell.” 

“Prince of earth,” replied Jesus, ‘*1 come not to 
bring war into the world, but peace, love and char- 


his twin brother, Remus. 

Romulus was the mythical founder of Rome and the first king. 
The children, according to legend, were born of the vestal virgin 
Rhea Sylvia by the god Mars. 

Rhea Sylvia was the daughter of Numitor, rightful heir of the 
king of Alba, but deprived by his brother. 

Exposed with his brother Remus, Romulus was suckled by a she- 
wolf and afterward brought up by a shepherd. 

The “Wolf of the Tiber” seems to be another name for the “Emperor 
of Rome,” or is spoken in allusion him, and “clothes himself with 
the skin of a sheep” an allusion to the mild policy of Tiberius— 
toward the Jews—at Jerusalem. 

The Romans, though rich and luxurious, were hardly less brutal 
than the wolves whom tradition made their foster-brothers. Their 
favorite sport was to see the bravest of their captives fight with wild 
beasts, or butcher each other in the arena, “to make a Roman 
holiday. ” 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


165 


ity. Persecution proceeds not from me. I expect 
it from others, and will meet it in obedience to the 
will of my Father, who has shown me the way. 
Restrain, therefore, your worldly prudence. It is 
not in your power to arrest the victim at the foot of 
the tabernacle of expiation.” So saying he disap¬ 
peared like a bright shadow behind the curtains of 
the basilic. 

To Herod, who then reigned in Galilee, the ene¬ 
mies of Jesus addressed themselves, to wreak their 
vengeance on the Nazarene. Had Herod consulted 
his own inclination, he would have ordered Jesus 
immediately to be put to death ; but though proud 
of his royal dignity, yet he was afraid of committing 
an act that might diminish his influence with the 
Senate. Herod called on me one day at the Preto- 
rium, and on rising to take his leave, after some 
insignificant conversation, he asked me what was 
my opinion concerning the Nazarene. I replied 
that Jesus appeared to be one of those great philos¬ 
ophers that great nations sometimes produce, that 
his doctrines are by no means sacrilegious, and that 
the intention of Rome was to leave him to that free¬ 
dom of speech which was justified by his actions. 
Herod smiled maliciously, and saluting me with an 
ironical respect, he departed. The great feast of the 
Jews was approaching, and their intention was to 
avail themselves of the popular exultation which 
always manifests itself at the solemnities of the Pass- 
over. The city was overflowing with a tumultuous 
populace clamoring for the death of the Nazarene. 
My emissaries informed me that the treasure of the 


166 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


Temple had been employed in bribing the people. 
The danger was pressing. A Roman centurion had 
been insulted. I had written to the prefect of Syria 
for a hundred foot-soldiers and as many cavalry 
He had declined. I saw myself alone with a hand¬ 
ful of veterans in the midst of a rebellious city, too 
weak to suppress a disorder, and having no other 
choice left but to tolerate it. They had seized upon 
Jesus, and the seditious rabble, although they had 
nothing to fear from the Pretorium, believing, with 
their leaders, that I winked at their sedition, contin¬ 
ued vociferating, “Crucify him! crucify him!” 
Three powerful parties had combined together at 
that time against Jesus. First the Herodians and 
the Sadducees, whose seditious conduct seemed to 
have proceeded from double motives. They hated 
the Nazarene, and were impatient of the Roman 
yoke. They could never forgive me for having en¬ 
tered their holy city with banners that bore the 
image of the Roman emperor,* and although in this 


* Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was by no means friendly to 
Pilate, yet furnished these facts: The Roman soldiers came from 
Caesarea to Jerusalem by night—possibly to diminish chances of of¬ 
fence. The Jews objected to the images on their standards. 

Pilate after finding the matter might cause trouble, sent, though 
not without delay, the images back to Caesarea. 

He found that the city needed water, and that a large sum of 
money was lying in the temple useless, or probably worse than use¬ 
less, since unprincipled men must have found means to misuse it. 
He took the money, made an aqueduct (Antiq. 18: 3, 2.), and re¬ 
pressed the mob which followed. See Huidekoper’s Judiaism at 
Rome p. 516, Note 45. 



REPORT OF PIRATE. 


167 

instance I had commited a fatal error, yet the 
sacrilege did not appear less heinous in their eyes. 
Another grievance, also rankled in their bosoms. 
I had proposed to employ a part of the treasure of 
the Temple in erecting edifices of public utility. 
My proposal was scowled at. The Pharisees were 


Josephus gives us this account of the affair:—But now Pilate, the 
Procurator of Judea, removed the army from Cesarea to Jerusalem, 
to take their winter-quarters there, in order to abolish the Jewish 
laws. So he introduced Caesar’s effigies, which were uqon the en¬ 
signs, and brought them into the city; whereas our law forbids us 
the very making of images; on which account the former procurators 
were wont to make their entry into the city, with such ensigns as 
had not those ornaments. Pilate was the first who brought those 
images to Jerusalem, and set them up there; which was done with¬ 
out the knowledge of the people, because it was done in the night¬ 
time; but as soon as they knew it, they came in multitudes to 
Cesarea, and interceded with Pilate many days, that he would re¬ 
move the images; and when he would not grant their requests, be¬ 
cause it would tend to the injury of Crnsar, while yet they persevered 
in their requests, on the sixth day he ordered his soldiers to have 
their weapons privately, while he came and sat upon his judgment- 
seat; which seat was so prepared in the open place ot the city, that 
it concealed-the army that lay ready to oppress them; and when the 
Jews petitioned him again, he gave a signal to the soldiers to en¬ 
compass them round, and threatened that their punishment should 
be no less than immediate death, unless they would leave off disturb¬ 
ing him, and go their ways home; but they threw themselves upon 
the ground, and laid their necks bare, and said they would take their 
death very willingly, rather than the wisdom of their laws should be 
transgressed; upon which Pilate was deeply affected with their firm 
resolution to keep their laws inviolable, and presently commanded 
the images to be carried back from Jerusalem to Cesarea. 

But Pilate undertook to bring a current of water to Jerusalem, 
and did it with the sacred money, and derived the origin of the 
stream from the distance of two hundred furlongs. However the 
Jews were not pleased with what had been done about this water; 



168 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


the avowed enemies of Jesus. They cared not for 
the government. They bore with bitterness the se¬ 
vere reprimands which the Nazarene for three years 
had been throwing out against them wherever he 
had gone. Too weak and pusilanimous to act by 
themselves, they had embraced the quarrels of the 
llerodians and the Sadducees. Besides these three 
parties I had to contend against the reckless and 
profligate populace, always ready to join a sedition, 
and to profit by the disorder and confusion that fol¬ 
lowed from it. Jesus was dragged before the high 
priest and condemned. It was there that the high 
priest Caiaphas performed a derisory act of submis¬ 
sion. lie sent his prisoner to me to pronounce his 
condemnation to death and secure his execution. I 
answered him that as Jesus was a Galilean, the 
affair came in Herod’s jurisdiction, and ordered him 
to be sent thither. The wily tetrarch professed hu¬ 
mility, and protesting his preference to the Lieuten- 


and many ten thousands of the people got together, and made a 
clamour against him, and insisted that he should leave ott that de¬ 
sign. Some of them also used reproaches, and abused this man, as 
crowds of such people usually do. So he habited a great number 
of his soldiers in their habit, who carried daggers under their gar¬ 
ments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them. 
So he bade the Jews himself go away; but they boldly casting re¬ 
proaches upon him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been 
beforehand agreed on; who laid upon them with much greater blows 
than Pilate had commanded them, and equally punished those that 
were tumultuous; and those that were not; nor did they spare them 
in the least; and since the people were unarmed, and were caught by 
men prepared for what they were about, there was a great number 
of them slain by this means, and others of them ran away wounded; 
and thus an end was put to this sedition. Antiq. chap, ii, Book xviii. 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


1G9 


ant of Csesar, he committed the man to my hands. 
Soon my palace assumed the aspect of a besieged 
citadel. Every moment increased the number of 
the seditionists. Jerusalem was inundated with 
crowds from the mountains of Nazareth. All Judea 
appeared to be pouring into the devoted city. I had 
taken a wife*—a girl from among the Gauls, who 
pretended to see into futurity, weeping and throw¬ 
ing herself at my feet—“Beware said she to me, 
“beware and touch not that man, for he is holy. 
Last night I saw him in a vision. He was walk¬ 
ing on the waters. He was flying on the wings 
of the winds. He spoke to the tempest and to the 
Ashes of the lake ; all were obedient to him. Be¬ 
hold ! the torrent in Mount Kedron flows with blood, 
the statues of Caesar are filled with the filth of Ge- 
monice, the columns of the Interium have given away 
and the sun is veiled in mourning like a vestal in 
the tomb. O, Pilate, evil awaits thee if thou wilt not 
listen to the prayer of thy wife. Dread the curse of 
the Roman Senate, dread the powers of Cassar.’’ 

By this time the marble stairsf groaned under the 


*The wife of Pilate mentioned here is also alluded to in the ’’Acts 
of Pilate” as Procle or Procula, is said by Sir Edwin Arnold in his 
4 ‘Light of the World” to have been of patrician blood, and de¬ 
scended from the great Claudian family of which Tiberius Csesar 
was also a member. 

It is possible there may have been some blood-relationship between 
this woman and the emperor, and that through it Pilate received his 
appointment as procurator of Judea. 

+There is a celebrated staircase consisting of twenty-eight marble 
steps in the chapel of the church of St. John Lateran at Rome, 



170 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


weight of the multitude. The Nazarene was 
brought back to me. I proceeded to the hall of jus¬ 
tice, followed by my guard, and asked the people in 
a severe tone what they demanded. “The death of 
theNazarene,” was their reply. “For what crime?” 
“He has blasphemed. He has prophesied the min 
of the Temple. He calls himself the Son of God, 
the Messiah, the King of the Jews.” “Roman 
justice,” said I, “punishes not such offenses with 
death. ’’ “Crucify him,crucify him !’’ belched forth 
the relentless rabble. The vociferations of the infu¬ 
riated mob shook the palace to its foundations. 
There was but one who appeared to be calm in the 
midst of the vast multitude. It was the Nazarene. 
After many fruitless attempts to protect him from 
the fury of his merciless persecutors, I adopted a 
measure which at the moment appeared to me to be 
the only one that could save his life. I ordered him 
to be scourged ; then calling for an ewer, I washed 
my hands in the presence of the multitude, thereby 
signifying to them my disapproval of the deed. 
But in vain. It was his life that these wretches 
thirsted for. 


brought thither by the empress Helena a. d. 325, said to be the 
stairway which Jesus several times ascended and descended when he 
appeared before Pilate, and doubtless the same spoken of here as,, 
“still stained with the blood of the Nazarene.” 

Multitudes of pilgrims, bearing roses in their hands, and kissing 
each step as they ascended to the top on their knees, have passed 
since then up this flight of marble steps made sacred by the feet of 
Jesus. 

Martin Luther once ascended these stairs and thought he heard a. 
voice saying, “the just shall live by faith.” 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


171 


Often in our civil commotions have I witnessed 
the furious animosity of the multitude, but nothing 
could be compared to what I witnessed in the present 
instance. It might have been truly said that on 
this occasion all the phamtoms of the infernal re¬ 
gions had assembled at Jerusalem. The multitude 
appeared not to walk. It was borne off and whirled 
as a vortex, rolling like living waves from the por¬ 
tals of the Pretorium even unto Mount Zion, with 
howlings such as were never heard in the seditions 
of Panonia,* or in the tumults of the forum. By 
degrees the day darkened like a winter’s twilight, 
such as had been at the death of the great Julius 
Csesarf It was likewise towards the ides of March 


*This allusion to the seditions of Panonia was doubtless made by 
Pilate in compliment to Tiberius. It was during the four serious 
campaigns which this rebellion cost Rome, that Tiberius showed 
himself at his best as a general. In alluding to these palmy days of 
his military career by a mere word let drop, Pilate directs a deserved 
compliment that could not fail to stir the heart of Ccesar with the 
memory of a proud recollection, as well as impress him with the 
difficulties under which Pilate must have often labored in the sedi¬ 
tious and turbulent riots ever breaking out among the Jews. 

+The darkening of the sun, a very unusual and long one, occurring 
at the time of the great Julius Ccesar’s assassination, is mentioned 
by Mark Antony in a letter of his to Hyrcanus the Jewish high- 
priest about 42 b. C., and preserved to us by Josephus and is as 
follows: “I am therefore satisfied, both by your actions and your 
words, that you [Hyrcanus] are well disposed toward us [Antony’s 
party]; and I understand that your conduct of life is constant and re¬ 
ligious, so that I reckon you as our own; but when those that were 
adversaries to you and to the Roman people [the enemies and slayers 
of Coesar] abstained neither from cities nor temples, and did not 
observe the agreement they had made and confirmed by oath, it was 



172 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


I, the continued governor of a rebellious province, 
was leaning against a column of my basilic contem¬ 
plating through the dreary gloom these fiends of 
torture dragging to execution the innocent Nazarene. 
All around me was deserted. Jerusalem had vom¬ 
ited forth her indwellers through the funeral gate 
that leads to the Gemonica. An air of desolation 
and sadness enveloped me. My guards had joined 
the cavalry, and the centurion to display a shadow 
of power, was endeavoring to keep order. I was 
left alone, and my breaking heart admonished me 
that what was passing at that moment appertained 
rather to the history of the gods than to that of man. 
A loud clamor was heard proceeding from Golgotha, 
which, borne on the winds, seemed to announce an 
agony such as had never been heard by mortal 
ears. Dark clouds lowered over the pinnacle of the 
Temple, and settling over the city, covered it as 
with a veil. So dreadful were the signs that were 
seen, both in the heavens and on the earth, that 
Dionysius,* * the Areopagite, is reported to have 


not only on account of our control with them, but on account of all 
mankind in commom, that we have taken vengeance on these authors 
of great injustice towards men, and of great wickedness towards the 
gods, for the sake of which we suppose that it was that the sun 
turned away his light from us, as unwilling to view the horrid 
crime they were guilty of in the case of Coesar. (See Josephus 
Amtiq. Book xiv, chap, xiii, 3.) 

*Dionysius, the Areopagite was a native of Athens, and a mem¬ 
ber of the Areopagus, where he sat when St. Paul was brought be¬ 
fore it, and delivered his famous speech respecting “the unknown 
God,” which is said to have been the means of converting Dionysius. 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


175 


exclaimed, “Either the auther of nature is suffering,, 
or the universe is falling apart.’' Toward the first 
hour of the night I threw my mantle around me and 
went down into the city toward the gates of Gol¬ 
gotha. The sacrifice was consummated. The 
multitude was returning home ; still agitated, it is 
true, but gloomy, taciturn and desperate. What it 
had witnessed had caused terror and remorse. 
I also saw my little Roman cohort pass by mourn¬ 
fully, the standard-bearer having veiled his eagle in 
token of grief, and I overheard some of the soldiers 
murmuring strange words, which I did not under¬ 
stand. Others were recounting prodigies almost 
similar to those which had so often smitten the 
Romans by the will of the gods. Sometimes 
groups of men and women would halt, then look¬ 
ing back towards Golgotha would remain motionless 
in expectation of witnessing some new prodigy. I 
returned to the Pretorium. sad and pensive. On 
ascending the stairs, the steps of which were still 
stained with the blood of the Nazarene, I perceived 
an old man in a suppliant posture, and behind him 
several women in tears. He threw himself at my 
feet and wept bitterly. It is painful to see an old 
man weep. 

“Father,” said I to him mildly, “who are you r 
and what is your request?” 

“I am Joseph of Arimathea,” replied he, “and 


According to some accounts he was made bishop of Athens and is- 
said to have suffered martyrdom about A. D. 95. 



174 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


am come to beg of you upon my knees the permis¬ 
sion to bury Jesus of Nazareth.” 

“Your prayer is granted,” said I to him, and at 
the same time ordered Manlius to take some soldiers 
with him to superintend the interment, lest it should 
be profaned. 

A few days after, the sepulchre was found empty. 
His disciples published all over the country that Je¬ 
sus had risen from the dead, as he had foretold. A 
last duty remained for me to perform, and that was 
to communicate to Caesar these deplorable events* 

I did it on the same night that followed the fatal 
catastrophe, and had just finished the communica¬ 
tion when day began to dawn. At that moment 
the sound of clarions playing the air of Diana struck 
my ear. Casting my eye toward the Caesarean gate 
I beheld a troop of soldiers, and heard at a distance 
other trumpets sounding Caesar’s march. It was 
the reinforcement that had been promised me*—two 
thousand chosen troops—who to hasten their arrival 
had marched all night, “It has been decreed by the 
fates,” cried I, wringing my hands, “that the great 
iniquity should be accomplished ; that for averting 
the deeds of yesterday, troops should arrive today. 
Cruel destiny, how thou sportest with the affairs of 
mortals.” It was but too true what the Nazarene 
had exclaimed while writhing on the cross, “All is 
consummated.” 


*See page 98 of the Acts of Pilate where 500 of these soldiers 
were given the priests to guard the sepulchre. 



REPORT OF PILATE THE PROCU¬ 
RATOR, 

CONCERNING OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, SENT TO 
THE AUGUST C€SAR IN ROME. 

(From Tischendorf’s Manuscript. 


(.FIRST FORM.) 

In those days, our Lord Jesus Christ having been 
crucified under Pontius Pilate, Procurator of Pales¬ 
tine and Phoenicia, these records were made in Jeru¬ 
salem as to what was done by the Jews against the 
Lord. Pilate, therefore, along with his private re¬ 
port, sent them to Caesar in Rome, writing thus : 
To the most mighty, venerable, most divine and 
most terrible, the august Caesar, Pilate, the gov¬ 
ernor of the East, sends greeting. I have, O most 
mighty, a narrative to give thee, on account of 
which I am seized with fear and trembling, for in 
this government of mine, of which one of the cities 
is called Jerusalem, all the people of the Jews have 
delivered to me a man named Jesus, bringing many 
charges against him which they were not able to 
convict him of by the consistency of their evidence. 
And one of the heresies they had against him was 



176 REPORT OF PILATE. 

that Jesus said that their Sabbath should not be a 
day of leisure, and should not be observed. For he 
performed many cures on that day ; he made the 
blind receive their sight, the lame walk ; he raised 
up the dead, he cleansed the lepers; he healed 
paralytics that were not at all able to make any 
movement of their body or keep their nerves steady, 
but who had only speech and the modulation of 
their voice, and he gave them the power of walking 
and running, removing their illness by a single word. 
Another thing again, more powerful still, which is 
strange even with our gods : he raised up one that 
had been dead four days, summoning him by a sin¬ 
gle word, when the dead man had his blood cor¬ 
rupted, and when his body was destroyed by the 
worms produced in it, and when it had the stink of 
a dog. And seeing him lying- in the tomb he 
ordered him to run. Nor had he anything of a dead 
body about him at all; but as a bridegroom from 
the bridal chamber, so he came forth from the tomb 
filled with very great fragrance. And strangers 
that were manifestly demoniac, and that had their 
dwellings in deserts, and ate their own flesh, living 
like beasts and creeping things, even these he made 
to be dwellers in cities, and by his word restored 
them to soundness of mind and rendered them wise 
and able and reputable, eating with all the enemies 
of the unclean spirits that dwelt in them for their 
destruction, which he cast down into the depths of 
the sea. And again, there was another having a 
withered hand ; and not the hand only, but rather 
the half of the body of the man was petrified so that 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


17T 


he had not the form of a man or the power of moving" 
his body. And him, by a word he healed and 
made sound. And a woman that had an issue of 
blood for many years, and whose joints and arteries 
were drained by the flowing of the blood so that she 
did not present the appearance of a human being, 
but was like a corpse, and was speechless every 
day, so that all the physicians of the district could 
not cure her. For there was not any hope of life 
left in her. And when Jesus passed by she myste¬ 
riously received strength through his overshadowing 
her ; and she took hold of his fringe behind, and im¬ 
mediately, in the same hour, power filled up in her 
what was empty, so that, no longer suffering any 
pain, she began to run swiftly to her own city, 
Kepharnaum, so as to accomplish the journey in 
six days. And these are the things which I lately 
had in my mind to report, which Jesus accomplished 
on the Sabbath. And other signs greater than these 
he did, so that 1 have perceived that the wonderful 
works done by him are greater than can be done by 
the gods whom we worship. And him Herod and 
Archelaus and Philip, Annas andCaiaphas, with all 
the people, delivered to me, making a great uproar 
against me that I should try him. I therefore or¬ 
dered him to be crucified, having first scourged him 
and having found against him no cause of evil accu¬ 
sations or deeds. And at the time he was crucified 
there was darkness over all the world, the sun being- 
darkened at mid-day and the stars appearing, but in 
them there appeared no lustre ; and the moon as if 
turned to blood failed in her light. And the world 


178 REPORT OF PILATE. 

was swallowed up by the lower regions, so that the 
very sanctuary of the Temple, as they call it, could 
not be seen by the Jews in their fall; and they saw 
below them a chasm of the earth, with the roar of the 
thunders that fell upon it. And in that terror dead 
men were seen that had risen, as the Jews themselves 
testified; and they said that it was Abraham, and 
Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, and 
Moses and Job, that had died, as they say, three 
thousand five hundred years before. And there 
were very many whom I also saw appearing in the 
body; and they were making a lamentation about 
the Jews, on account of the wickedness that had 
come to pass through them, and the destruction of 
the Jews and their law. 

And the fear of the earthquake remained from 
the sixth hour of the preparation until the ninth 
hour. And on the evening of the first day of the 
week there was a sound out of the heavens, so that 
the heavens became enlightened seven-fold more 
than all the days. And at the third hour of the night 
the sun was seen brighter than it had ever shone 
before, lighting up the heavens. And as the light¬ 
nings came suddenly in the winter so majestic, men 
appeared in glorious robes, an innumerable multitude 
whose voice was heard as that of a very great thun¬ 
der, crying out: “Jesus that was crucified is risen ; 
come up out of the hades, ye that have been enslaved 
in the underground of hades. And the chasm of 
the earth was as if it had no bottom : but it was as 
if the very foundations of the earth appeared along 
with those that cried out in the heavens and 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


170 


walked about in the body in the midst of the dead 
that had risen. And he that raised up all the dead 
and bound hades said, “Say to my disciples he goes 
before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him.” 
And all that night the light did not cease shining. 
And many of the Jews died, swallowed up in the 
chasm of the earth, so that on the following day 
most of those who had been against Jesus could not 
be found. Others saw the appearing of those who 
had risen whom no one of us had ever seen. And 
only one synagogue of the Jews was left in this Je¬ 
rusalem, since all disappeared in that fall. 

With that terror, being in perplexity and seized 
with a most frightful trembling. I have written what 
I saw at that time, and have reported to thy majes¬ 
ty. Having set in order, also, what was done by 
the Jews against Jesus, I have sent it, my lord, to 
thy divinity. 


THE REPORT OF PONTIUS PILATE 


PROCURATOR OF JUDEA.—SENT TO TIBERIUS 
C/ESAR. 


(From Tischendorf’s Manuscript.) 


(SECOND FORM.) 

To the most mighty, venerable, awful, most di¬ 
vine, the august, Pilatus Pontius, the governor of 
the East: I have to report to thy reverence through 
this writing of mine, being seized with great tremb¬ 
ling and fear, O most mighty emperor, the conjunc¬ 
tion of the present times as the end of these things 
has shown. For while I, my lord, according to the 
commandment of thy clemency, was discharging 
the duties of my government, which is one of the 
cities of the East, Jerusalem by name, in which is 
built the Temple of the Jewish nation, all the mul¬ 
titude of the Jews came together and delivered to 
me a certain man named Jesus, bringing against 
him many groundless charges ; and they were not 
able to convict him in anything. And one heresy 
against him of theirs was that he said that the Sab¬ 
bath was not their right rest. And that man wrought 
many cures in addition to good works. He made 



REPORT OF PILATE. 


181 


the blind see ; he cleansed the lepers ; he raised the 
dead ; he healed paralytics who could not move at 
all, except that they only had their voice, and the 
joining of their bones ; and he gave them the power 
of walking about and running, commanding them 
by a single word. And another mightier work he 
did, which was strange even with our gods: he 
raised up a dead man, Lazarus, who had been dead 
four days, by a single word, ordering the dead man 
to be raised, although his body was already cor¬ 
rupted by worms that grow in wounds ; and that 
ill-smelling body lying in the tomb he ordered to 
run ; and as a bridegroom from the bridal chamber, 
so he came forth out of the tomb filled with exceed¬ 
ing fragrance. And some that were cruelly vexed 
by demons and had their dwellings in deserts, and 
ate the flesh of their own limbs, and lived along 
with reptiles and wild beasts, he made to be dwel¬ 
lers in cities in their own houses, and by a word he 
rendered them sound-minded, and he made those 
that were troubled by unclean spirits to be intelli¬ 
gent and reputable ; and, sending away the demons 
in them into a herd of swine, he suffocated them in 
the sea. Another man, again, who had a withered 
hand and lived in sorrow, and had not even the 
half of his body sound, he rendered sound by a 
single word. And a woman that had a flow of 
blood for many years so that, in consequence of the 
flowing of her blood, all the joinings of her bones 
appeared and were transparent like glass, and as¬ 
suredly all the physicians had left her without hope 
and had not cleansed her, for there was not in her 


182 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


a single hope of health ; once, then as Jesus was 
passing by, she took hold of the fringe of his clothes 
behind, and that same hour her body was completely 
restored to power, and she became whole as if noth¬ 
ing were the matter with her, and she began to run 
swiftly to her own city, Paneas. And these things 
indeed were so. And the Jews gave information 
that Jesus did these things on the Sabbath. And 
I also ascertained that the miracles done by him 
were greater than any which the gods whom we 
worship could do. 

Him, then, Herod and Archelaus, and Annas 
and Caiaphas, with all the people, delivered to me 
to try him. And, as many were exciting an insur¬ 
rection against me, I ordered him crucified. And 
when he had been crucified there was darkness 
over the whole earth, the sun having been com¬ 
pletely hidden, and the heaven appearing dark, 
though it was day. so that the stars appeared, but 
had at the same time their brightness darkened, as 
I suppose your reverence is not ignorant of, because 
in all the world they lighted lamps from the sixth 
hour until evening. And the moon being like blood 
did not shine the whole night, and yet she happened 
to be at the full. And the stars, also, and Orion, 
made a lament about the Jews, on account of the 
wickedness that had been done by them. And on 
the first of the week, about the third hour of the 
night, the sun was seen such as it had never at any 
time shone, and all the heaven was lighted up. 
And as lightnings come on in winter, so men of in¬ 
describable splendor of dress and of glory appeared 


REPORT OF PILATE. 


183 


in the air, and an innumerable multitude of angels 
crying out and saying: “Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace, among men good will; 
come up out of hades, ye who have been kept in 
slavery in the underground regions of hades. ’ * And 
at their voice all the mountains and hills were 
shaken, and the rocks were burst asunder, and 
great chasms were made in the earth, so that what 
was also in the abyss appeared. 

And there were seen in that terror, dead men 
raised up, as the Jews that saw them said: “We 
have seen Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and the 
twelve patriarchs that died two thousand five hun¬ 
dred years ago ; and we have seen Noah manifestly 
in the body.” And all the multitude walked about 
and sang praises to God with a loud voice, saying: 
“The Lord our God that has risen from the dead ; 
has brought to life all the dead ; and has plundered 
Hades and put him to death.” All that night, 
therefore, my lord, O king, the light ceased not. 
And many of the Jews died and were engulfed and 
swallowed up in the chasms in that night, so that 
not even their bodies appeared. Those of the Jews 
I say suffered who had spoken against Jesus. And 
one synagogue was left in Jerusalem, since all the 
synagogues that had been against Jesus were en¬ 
gulfed. From that fear, then, being in perplexity 
and seized with much trembling, at that same hour 
I ordered what had been done by them to be written, 
and I have reported it to thy mightiness. 


LETTER OF PONTIUS PILATE TO 

THE ROMAN EMPEROR. 


Pontius Pilate to the Emperor, Tiberius Caesar : 
Upon Jesus Christ, whose case I had clearly set 
forth to thee in my last, at length, by the will of the 
people, a bitter punishment has been inflicted, my¬ 
self being in a sort unwilling and rather afraid. A 
man, by Hercules, so pious and strict no age has 
ever had or will have. But wonderful were the 
efforts of the people themselves and the unanimity to 
crucify this embassador of truth, notwithstanding 
that their own prophets, and after our manner the 
sybils, warned them against it; and supernatural 
signs appeared while he was hanging, and, in the 
opinion of the philosophers, threatened destruction 
to the whole world. His disciples are flourishing 
in their work, and the regulation of their lives not 
belying their master : yea, in his name, most bene¬ 
ficent. Had I not been afraid of the rising of a se¬ 
dition among the people, who were just on the point 
of breaking out, perhaps this man would still be 
alive to us ; although urged more by fidelity to thy 
dignity than induced by my own wishes. T did not. 



LETTER OF PILATE. 


185 


according to my strength, resist that innocent blood 
free from the whole charge (brought against it,) but 
unjustly through the malignity of men, should be 
sold and suffer, yet, as the Scriptures signify, to 
their own destruction. Farewell. 28 th March. 


LETTER OF PONTIUS PILATE TO 

CLAUDIUS OESAR. 


Pontius Pilate to Claudius, greeting : There has 
lately happened an event which I myself was con¬ 
cerned iu. For the Jews, through envy, have in¬ 
flicted upon themselves and on those coming after 
them dreadful judgments. Their fathers had prom¬ 
ises that their God would send them his holy one 
from heaven, who, according to reason, should be 
called their king, and he had promised to send him 
to the earth by means of a virgin. He, then, when 
I was procurator, came into Judea. And they saw 
him enlightening the blind, cleansing lepers, healing 
paralytics, expelling demons from men, raising the 
dead, subduing the winds, walking upon the waves 
of the sea, and doing many other wonders, and all 
the people of the Jews calling him Son of God. 
Then the chief priests, moved with envy against 
him, seized him and delivered him to me ; and, tel¬ 
ling one lie after another, they said he was a wizzard 
and did contrary to their law. And I, having be¬ 
lieved these things were so, gave him up, after 
scourging him, to their will, and they crucified him ; 



LETTER OF PILATE. 


1ST 


and after he was buried set guards over him. But 
he, while my soldiers were guarding him, rose on 
the third day. And to such a degree was the wick¬ 
edness of the Jews inflamed against him that they 
gave money to the soldiers, saying, “Say his dis¬ 
ciples have stolen his body.” But they having 
taken the money, were not able to keep silence as to 
what had happened ; for they have testified that they 
have seen him risen, and that they have received 
money from the Jews. These things have I reported, 
that no one should falsely speak otherwise, and that 
thou shouldst not suppose that the falsehoods of the 
Jews are to be believed. 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS C/ESAR. 


It may be well here to state to the reader that, in this work which 
is entitled “A Monograph of the Crucifixion,” it has been thought 
best to give some account of the Emperor, in whose reign it oc¬ 
curred, as also the prominent officials connected with it, both on the 
Jewish and Roman side. 

In the history of it, also, certain others of later times call for men¬ 
tion—and hence the insertion of the various sketches that here 
follow. 


It .has been argued by some that it is not likely 
that Pilate would have made such a writing to Ti 
berius Caesar as is contained in the foregoing Acts, 
Reports, etc., for the simple reason that the charac¬ 
ter of Tiberius is opposed to such an idea. 

The true character of Tiberius therefore is neces¬ 
sary here in arriving at a conclusion on this ques¬ 
tion ; and inasmuch as later criticism and a more 
thorough investigation has shown that, Tiberius’ 
character, both as a man and a ruler, has been 
grossly misrepresented, by Suetonius especially, one 
of his earliest biographers, it is felt necessary that it 
be set forth in its true light, as having a bearing on 
the objections to the Reports’ being made by such of 
his subordinate lieutenants as Pilate. 




TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


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SKETCH OF TIBEFIUS CAESAR. 


189 


And what shall be said of the character of Ti¬ 
berius here, will be drawn from the latest historical 
investigation, and the most thorough and critical ex¬ 
amination of original authorities by a master hand. 

Suetonius, born a. d. 70 and who died 123 a. d. 
was a political enemy and hater of Tiberius ; and 
in his ‘‘Life of the Twelve Caesars” has taken par¬ 
ticular delight in aspersing the character of the 
great emperor, and in so doing has misled the 
minds of much of posterity into the belief that Ti¬ 
berius was a corrupt, dissolute beast, as a man, and 
a weak and imperious tyrant as emperor, whose 
sole delight was to be cruel and devilish. 

That he was not such, might be denied generally 
from the very fact of his parentage, his early child¬ 
hood and very boyhood ; and especially from the 
facts of his great culture in learning, his love of the 
arts and literature, and from his great ability as a 
general, when he attained to manhood. 

His very selection by the great Augustus as one 
fit to succeed him in his reign as emperor, is enough 
to show somewhat of the man, to say nothing else 
in his favor. 

His wise, honest and liberal policy as a man and 
ruler devoted to the interests of the people, and his 
anti-patrician sentiment, lie chiefly at the foundation 
of what has been alleged against him by men like 
Suetonius, Tacitus and others. 

Tiberius Caesar was the second emperor of Rome. 
He was born Nov. 15, 42 b. c., on the Palatine Hill* 
Rome : and suceeded the great Augustus A. d. 14. 
He was a descendant of the great Claudian family. 


190 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CM SAR. 


whose signal services to the Roman State were 
many. 

He was also related to the family of the Livii 
which, although of the common people, made itself 
distinguished, having enjoyed the honor of eight 
consulships, two censorships, three triumphs, and 
one dictatorship. 

The father of Tiberius was a quasstor, a general 
and a senator. After the assassination of Julius 
Ciesar he proposed a resolution in the Senate to re¬ 
ward those who had slain him. 

The childhood of Tiberus is said to have been 
spent in troubles, and amid many dangers, accom¬ 
panying his parents in their flight from political 
enemies, from one province to another. He was a 
precocious child, delivering, when only nine years 
old, an oration on the rostra in praise of his father. 

While yet a boy he attended the chariot of the 
great Augustus in his triumph for the victory at 
Actium ; and presided over the games celebrating 
that victory, he commanding the larger boys. 

From the age of 20 till 36 by far the greater part 
of his time was spent in camp. 

In 9 b. c., that is when 33 years old he became 
the first soldier of the empire, occupying the posi¬ 
tion left vacant by Drusus’ death in the autumn of 
that year. In the year following he traversed all 
that part of Germany lying between the Rhine and 
the Elbe. He was rewarded with the full triumph 
and the military title of “imperator.” 

In 6 b. c. Augustus bestowed upon him the tri- 
bunician authority for five years. He was thus in 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 191 

the most formal manner associated with the emperor 
in the conduct of the government on the civil side. 

At the age of 56, that is a. d. 14, Tiberius as¬ 
cended the throne as emperor. 

Throughout his reign, of 22 years, he strove earn¬ 
estly to do his duty to the empire at large. 

His guiding principle was to maintain the con¬ 
stitutional forms which had been constructed by 
Augustus. 

When he died A. d. 37 he left the subject people 
of the empire in a condition of prosperity such as 
they had never known before, and never knew 
again. 

Public security both in Italy and abroad was 
maintained with a strong hand, and commerce was 
stimulated by the great improvement of communi¬ 
cation. 

Soldiers, governors and officials of all kinds were 
kept in dread of vengeance if they oppressed those 
beneath them, or encouraged irregularity of an}' 
kind. He died at the age of 78. 

The accompanying likeness of him, procured 
through the kindness of Hon. A. G. Porter, pres¬ 
ent United States minister to Italy, and regarded 
as authentic, is from a statue of Tiberius in the 
gallery of the Vactican at Rome. It was discov¬ 
ered in modern times at Piperno, the ancient Pri- 
vernum, near Terracina. 

We append here, by the author’s special permis¬ 
sion, the very valuable and exhaustive note of Prof. 
F. Huidekoper, as taken from his “Judaism at Rome 
b. c. 76 —a. d. 140” and found on pages 504—541 


192 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


note G, as to the character of Tiberius, as follows. 

Charader of Tiberius 

The personal character and political tendencies of 
the Emperor Tiberius have an indirect connection 
with the general subject of this work : yet a chief 
motive for the following note is the desire of contrib¬ 
uting towards an appreciation of one who, after 
laboring faithfully by precept and example in behalf 
of temperance and frugality, rectitude and kindness 
has been misrepresented as a brutal and despotic 
debauchee. 

If we ask why Tiberius should have been so tra¬ 
duced, there are two answers,’ one applicable to the 
charge of despotism, the other to that of debauchery. 
The former can be best comprehended by such as 
appreciate the degree in which the privileged classes 
had come to regard peculation, bribery, and extor¬ 
tion as their well-settled right.* When Tiberius, 
with no exercise of arbitrary power, threw the 


*“The equites abused their power, as the Senate had done before 
them. As farmers of the public revenues, they committed peculation 
and extortion with an habitual impunity, which assumed in their 
own view the complexion of a right. When accused they were 
tried by accomplices and partisans. . . . On the other hand, in 

prosecutions against senators of the opposite faction, the equites 
had more regard to political animosty than to justice. Even in or¬ 
dinary cases, where party teelmg was not concerned, they allowed 
their judicial votes to be purchased by bribery and corrupt influence. 44 
—Smith, Diet, of Biog., i, p. 1079, col. 2, art. Drusus, No. 6. 
These remarks hold equally true of the Senate, which was generally 
regarded (Pliny, Jun., Epist. 9, 13, § 21, quoted in Ch. X. note 104)+ 
as severe towards all faults but its own. +A 11 references of this sort 
are to Huidekoper’s “Judiasm at Rome.” 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


193 


whole weight of his personal and official influence 
against such procedures, they resented it,* and as 
they were the writers of history, their feelings have 
overlaid their facts. The charge of debauchery can 
be better weighed and understood after an exami¬ 
nation of his life. 

Before proceeding, it deserves note that Tiberius 
encouraged freedom of speech and neglected any 
disparagement of himself ;f yet Tactitus, a lifetime 


*It has already been mentioned (Note C, foot-note 18) that the 
presence of Tiberius in a subordinate seat at trials, prevented bribery 
and corruption. On this Tacitus remarks (An. i, 75): “Though 
justice was thereby furthered, liberty was impaired.” This liberty 
can scarcely have been aught save that of wrong-doing. No hint is 
given that Tiberius interfered with any pretor’s honest exercise of 
judgment. His course in the Senate precludes such supposition. 

+“He remained unmoved at all the aspersions, scandalous reports, 
and lampoons which were spread against him or his relations; declar¬ 
ing, ‘In a free state, both the tongue and the mind ought to be free.’ 
Upon the Senate's desiring that some notice might be taken of these 
offences, and the persons charged with them, he replied, ‘We have 
not so much time upon our hands that we ought to involve ourselves 
in more business. If you once make an opening for such proceed¬ 
ings, you will soon have nothing else to do. All private quarrels 
will be brought before you under that pretence.’ There is extant 
also an utterance by him in the Senate percivilis , which is that of a 
model citizen. [After putting a good explanation on a perverted 
report of some one’s language?] ‘If indeed he have spoken other¬ 
wise I will make it a point to explain [to him] my actions and re¬ 
marks. If he should persist, I shall reciprocate his dislike.’ ”— 
Sueton. Tib. 28, Bohn’s trans. altered. 

In the following we must remember that the Senate had, as a 
stroke of policy, deified Augustus, and that Tiberius could only by 
defying its authority and enactments exempt any one from legally 
brought charges of vilifying him. “An informer [prosecutor on 



194 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


later, could find no writer in his reign who spoke 
evil of him.* That writer was certainly no friend 
of Tiberius, and what he says, therefore (under a. 
d. 23 ,) concerning the first ten years of his admin¬ 
istration, need not be suspected of any coloring in 
the emperor’s favor, f 


shares] charged Apuleia Varilia * * * with vilifying the dei¬ 
fied Augustus, Tiberius; and his mother* * * * Tiberius de¬ 

sired that a distinction should be made : ‘If she had spoken irrever¬ 
ently of Augustus she [if the words of Tiberius have not been 
altered] must be condemned, but for invectives against himself he 
would not have her called to account.’ The consul asked him what 
were his sentiments respecting the aspersions of his mother, which 
the accused was charged with uttering. To this he made no answer, 
but at the next sitting of the Senate he prayed too in her name, 
‘that no words in whatsoever manner spoken against her might be 
imputed to any one as a crime.’ ”—Tacitus, An. 2, 50, Bohn’s trans. 
“This * * * series of sad events was interrupted by a degree of 

joy from the pardon extended by Tiberius to' Cominius, who had 
been convicted of writing defamatory verses upon him.”—Tacitus, 
An. 4, 31, Bohn’s trans. “Of disrespect towards any one, or unbe¬ 
lief in [the divinity of] any one, * * * he made very slight ac¬ 

count, nor did he ever attend to such allegation [of offence] touching 
himself.”—Dio Cass. 57, 9. 

*“As to Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, whilst they yet 
reigned the histories of their times were falsified through fear ; and 
after they had fallen, they were written under the influence of recent 
detestation.”—Tacitus, An. 1, 1, Bohn’s trans. 

+The following is such a recantation of statements and insinua¬ 
tions scattered by Tacitus through his first three books, as to suggest 
that those had been first published, and that, when Book 4 appeared, 
public opinion compelled a retraction : “All the public, and every 
private business of moment was managed by the Senate : to the 
leading members he allowed liberty of debate : those who deviated 
into flattery, he himself checked: in conferring preferments, he was 
guided by merit, by ancient nobility, (?) renown in war, (?) and dis- 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 195 

Prominent among the characteristics of Tiberius 
was moral earnestness. When a governor's rapac¬ 
ity had become manifest he broke off social inter¬ 
course with him ; and when the man committed 
suicide, either to avoid the shame of condemnation 
or the confiscation of his ill-acquired property, Tibe¬ 
rius wrote to the Senate urging the impropriety of 
giving social standing to such a man, and con¬ 
demning the idea that the disgrace of his conduct 
was removed, or shifted to others, by his suicide.* 


tinguished civil accomplishments; insomuch that it was agreed that 
none had greater pretensions. The consuls and the pretors retained 
the usual distinctions of their offices; inferior magistrates, the exer¬ 
cise of their authority; and the laws, except the inquisition for bad 
citizenship, were beneficially administered. The tithes, taxes, and 
all public receipts were directed by companies of Roman knights!: 
the management of his own estates he committed only to men of 
eminent probity; and to some from their reputation, though unknown 
to him : and when once engaged, they were continued, without any 
restriction of term; since most of them grew old in the same em¬ 
ployments. * * * He took care that the provinces should not 

be oppressed with new impositions ; and that the existing burdens 
should not be rendered intolerable by rapacity or severity in the 
magistrates: corporal punishments and confiscations of 

, GOODS WERE UNKNOWN. 

“The emperor’s lands in Italy were small, and thinly scattered ; 
the behavior [or else the number] of his slaves modest; the freedmen 
in his house few ; his disputes with private individuals were deter¬ 
mined by the courts and the law.”—Tacitus, An. 4, 6, 7, Bohn’s 
trans. altered. This is the person of whom Tacitus had previously 
alleged (An, 1, 74) that “all things disgraceful were, because of their 
truth, believed to have been uttered [by others].” 

*“Pomponius Labeo, who, as I have mentioned, was governor of 
Mcesia, opening his veins poured out his life-blood ; his wife Paxaea, 
in emulation of his example, did the same. The dread of falling by 



I 


196 SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 

Moral earnestness imparts earfy development, and 
elicits recognition thereof from others. There is 
hardly a better criterion of its existence than to find 
maturity attributed to youth, and. to see age deferen¬ 
tial towards early years. We have this testimony 
to Tiberius from outsiders* and also from a step¬ 
father who longed for his counsel in difficulty, and 
for his personal influence in moments of irritation.t 
The fact deserves to be pondered, that the—not 


the executioner made deaths of this sort a welcome resource ; in ad¬ 
dition to which, those who were condemned forfeited their estates, 
and were debarred the rights of burial; of such as made away 
with themselves, the .bodies were interred, and the wills were valid, 
the reward of their despatch! Tiberius, however, in a letter to 
the Senate, argued ‘that it was the usage of their ancestors (?), 
when they would renounce the friendship of anyone, to forbid him 
their house, and thus put an end to all gracious intercourse : a usage 
he had repeated in the case of Labeo ; but he who was pressed with 
a charge of maladministration, and other crimes, had sought to veil 
his guilt by an act reflecting odium upon others ; while his wife had 
alarmed herself unnecessarily, for though guilty, she was neverthe¬ 
less in no danger.’ ”—Tacitus, An. 6, 29. A comparison with the 
foregoing of NoteC, foot-note 17, implies, apparently, that the Sen¬ 
ate, in opposition to the remonstrance of Tiberius, must, at some 
date since the incident there mentioned, have granted pecuniary in¬ 
demnity to suicides. The appeal of Tiberius to “usage of their an¬ 
cestors” (if not fabricated by Tacitus), was made to the highest code 
of rectitude acknowledged by the body which he was addressing. 

*“He (Tiberius), while yet young, was called the old man because 
of reverence for his thoughtfulness. ’V-Philo, Embassy, 21 ; Opp. p. 
696 (Bohn’s trans. 4, pp. 130, 131). 

t‘“If anything (Augustus wrote) has occurred requiring more care¬ 
ful thought than usual, or at which I am angry, * * * I long for 

my Tiberius.’ ”—Sueton. Tib. 21. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS C/ESAR. 


19T 


always seemly—jests of Augustus would die apon 
his lips when Tiberius approached.* 

Moral earnestness is independent of party, and 
not blunted by prevalent indifference to venality. 
When a corrupt judge of the privileged classes 
needed punishment, f Tiberius spoke no uncertain 
language, and when one of his own fiscal agents 
tried imposition he was equally plain .\ 

Moral earnestness—by which must not be under¬ 
stood personal excitability on moral questions—is 


*“I do not ignore what some have handed down, that Augustus, 
not secretly, but openly, so disapproved (?) his austerity, inorum 
■diritatem, that he sometimes, on his entrance, broke off his most 
careless and jovial remarks.”—Sueton. Tib. 21. 

+“But in the case of Publius Suilius, formerly quaestor to Ger- 
manicus, now convicted of having taken money in an affair where he 
was to decree as judge, and for which he was about to be excluded 
from Italy, the emperor voted for his banishment into an island, 
with such earnestness of feeling, that with the solemnity of an oath 
he declared it ‘for the interest of the commonwealth’ ; a proceeding 
which, though at the time regarded as harsh, turned afterwards to 
his praise, when Suilius returned to Rome; a following age saw that 
exile possessed of extravagant power ; abandoned to venality, and 
employing his friendship with Claudius, which he long enjoyed, in all 
cases for his own advancement, but never in the cause of virtue.”— 
Tacitus, An. 4, 31, Bohn’s trans. altered. 

+“For by the Senate even yet all affairs were transacted ; inso¬ 
much that Lucilius Capito, the emperor’s comptroller in Asia, was, 
at the accusation of that province, put upon his defence before them, 
the emperor protesting with great earnestness, ‘that from him Lucil¬ 
ius had no authority but over his slaves, and in collecting his domes¬ 
tic rents ; that if he had usurped the jurisdiction of pretor, and 
employed military force, he had so far violated his orders; they 
should therefore hear the allegations of the province.”—Tacitus, 
An. 4, 15, Bohn’s trans. 



198 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS C^SAR. 


apt to recognize and respect the individual responsi¬ 
bility of others. Tiberius recognized the individual 
responsibility of senators, avoided interfering with it, 
and did what he could to make them feel it. An 
instance has already been given* of a question in 
which he took much interest. Other illustrations of 
this trait are given below.f 


*See in note 6 of Ch. v. a citation from Suetonius, Tib. 31. It 
may profitably be compared with action on a similiar question in the 
time of Trajan (see Ch. x. foot-note 59), who did not even submit it 
to the Senate, but decided it with his council. 

+“In the respect he paid to individuals, or the whole body of the 
Senate, he went beyond all bounds. Upon his differing with Quintus 
Haterius in the Senate-house, ‘Pardon me, sir,’ he said, ‘I beseech 
you, if I shall as a senator, speak my mind very freely in opposition 
to you. * * * All affairs, whether of great or small importance, 

public or private, were laid before the Senate. Taxes and monopo¬ 
lies, the erecting and repairing edifices, levying and disbanding 
soldiers, the disposal of the legions and auxiliary forces in the 
provinces, the appointment of generals for the management of ex¬ 
traordinary wars, and the answers to letters from foreign princes, 
were all submitted to the Senate. Tie compelled the commander of 
a troop of horse, who was accused of robbery attended with violence, 
to plead his cause before the Senate. He never attended the. 
Senate-house but unattended ; and being once brought thither 
in a litter, because he was indisposed, he dismissed his attendants at 
the door. 

“When some decrees were made contrary to his opinion, he did 
not even make any complaint. And though he thought that no 
magistrates after their nomination should be allowed to absent 
themselves from the city, but reside in it constantly, to fulfil their 
duties in person, a pretor elect obtained liberty to depart under the 
honorary title of a legate-at-large. * * * All other things of a 

public nature were likewise transacted by the magistrates, and in the 
usual forms ; * * * he used to rise up as the consuls approached, 

and give them the way. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS C/ESAR. 


199 


Moral earnestness is not fond of flattery from, 
nor of unmanly behavior in, others. Tiberius was 
no exception to this rule.* It is not apt to aim 


“He reprimanded some person? of consular rank in command of 
armies for not writing to the Senate an account of their proceed¬ 
ings, and for consulting him about the distribution of military re¬ 
wards ; as if they themselves had not a right to bestow them as they 
judged proper.”—Sueton. Tib 29-32, Bohn’s trans. alt’d. 

Tiberius “never undertook anything of moment without commu¬ 
nicating it to the others (the Senate). Proposing his own view, he 
not only conceded to every one freedom to oppose it, but bore at 
times votes (or perhaps ‘decrees’) contrary to his view, for he often 
voted. His son Drusus habitually did it in common with the other 
senators, sometimes first, sometimes after others; but as regards 
himself, sometimes he was silent ; sometimes after several others 
had spoken he expressed himself fully ; sometimes last of all. For 
the most part, that he might not seem to interfere with their free¬ 
dom of utterance, his phraseology was, ‘If I were TO GIVE MY 
opinion, I would say so and so.’ This was equivalent to the usual 
form, yet the others were not constrained by it from speaking their 
minds. Often when he had given an opinion subsequent speakers 
took opposite ground, and sometimes carried it. Yet he never 
manifested anger thereat.”—Dio Cass. 57, 7. 

*“He had such an aversion to flattery, that he would never suffer 
any senator to attend his litter, either as a civility or upon business. 
And when a man in consular rank, in begging his pardon for some 
offence he had given him, attempted to fall at his feet, he started 
from him in such haste that he stumbled and fell. If any compli¬ 
ment were paid him, either in conversation or a set speech, he would 
not scruple to interrupt or reprimand the party, and alter what he 
said. Being once called ‘lord’ by some person, he desired that he 
might no more be affronted in that manner. When another, to ex¬ 
cite veneration, called his occupations ‘sacred,’ and a third had ex¬ 
pressed himself thus, ‘By your authority I have waited upon the 
Senate,’ he obliged them to change their phrases ; in one of them 
adopting persuasion, instead of ‘authority,’ and in the other labo¬ 
rious instead of ‘sacred.’ ”—Sueton. Tib. 27, Bohn’s trans. altered. 



200 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


either at expense or display. Tiberius tried, not 
by force, but by precept and example, to inculcate 
frugality and temperance.* * One of his efforts in 
this direction has, like too many others of even his 
best deeds, been shamefully misrepresented. \ 


Compare Tacitus, An. 4, 6. 

The first of the above statements is corroborated by another 
writer. “When carried anywhere in his litter he did not permit any 
senator or any of the principal knights to follow as attendants.”— 
Dio Cass. 57, 11. 

* Although Tiberius enforced existing laws against dissipation, “yet 
when the senators wished to enact a penalty against profligate livers, 
he took no action on it, adding that it was better to reform them in 
some way privately, than to impose a public punishment upon them. ” 
-Dio Cass. 57, 13. 

Additional evidence that Tiberius was a temperate liver may be 
found in his playful criticism (Tacitus, An. 6, 46) of persons “who 
after their thirtieth year needed advice from another (that is, from a 
physician) as to what was physically beneficial or injurious to them;” 
and in the remark of Suetonius (Tib. 68), “He enjoyed excellent 
health, which was unimpaired during his whole term of 
OFFICE, although after his thirtieth year he managed it according to 
his own judgment, without aid or counsel of physician.” Plutarch 
(De Sanitate Tnenda , Opp. 6, p. 517, ed. Reiske; 7, p. 407, ed 
Hutten) may refer to some variation by Tiberius of his habitual re¬ 
mark as recorded by Tacitus, though the spirit of it is the same. 

tTiberius accepted from an old man, Sestius Gallus, with whom 
he had found some fault in the Senate, an invitation to supper 
(Sueton. Tib. 42) on condition “that he should change nothing from 
his ordinary custom,” meaning, doubtless, that he should add noth¬ 
ing to the expense or trouble of his entertainment. Report, fabri¬ 
cated perhaps in a later age, charged Gallus, correctly or falsely, 
with being waited on by girls in a state of nudity. We can safely 
assume, either that the charge was fabricated by dissolute idlers as a 
jest at the expense of Tiberius, or, that if Gallus had ever per¬ 
mitted himself so gross an indecency, Tiberius was ignorant of the 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


201 


Frugality is sometimes connected with avarice; 
Fut all writers agree that Tiberius had no taint of 
the latter.* His benevolence seems to have been 
thoughtful,f and in more than one instance copious \\ 


fact, and Gallus sure not to repeat it in his presence. Fearful as 
such indecency appears,;the plates of Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians 
(Vol. i, pp. 142, 143, Harper’s edit.) show that it was not unknown, 
at least to some heathen assemblages. 

•“Tacitus calls him (An. 3, 18) “sufficiently firm, as I have often 
related, against (the temptations of) money.” The solitary excep¬ 
tion which he mentions (An. 4, 20) is imaginary. A public plun¬ 
derer was prosecuted, and Tiberius had an accurate calculation 
made of what was due from him. Tacitus, copying the feelings of 
the aristocracy, deemed this illiberal. Elsewhere he says: “The 
estate of the wealthy Emilia Musa, who died intestate, and which 
was claimed for the prince’s purse, he surrendered to Emilias Lepidus 
to whose family she seemed to belong; as also to Marcus Servilius 
the inheritance of Patuleius, a rich Roman knight, though part of it 
had been bequeathed to himself; but he found Servilius named sole 
heir in a former and well-authenticated will, alleging that the nobili- 
tatern sentorial rank of each needed pecuniary aid (to prevent for¬ 
feiture). Nor did he ever accept any man’s inheritance, but where 
friendship gave him a title ; the wills of such as were strangers to 
him, and of such as, from pique to others, had appointed the prince 
their heir, he utterly rejected.”—Tacitus, An. 2, 48, Bohn’s trans. 
altered. 

“These (his bounties to others) he expended from his lawful reve¬ 
nues, for he never killed any one for the sake of riches nor yet con¬ 
fiscated his goods nor did he in any instance acquire money through 
threats. To ^Emilius Rectus, who on one occasion sent him from 
Egypt, of which he was governor, more than the appointed tribute, 
he wrote back, ‘I wish you to shear and not shave, my sheep.”— 
Dio Cass 57, 10. “In addition to other virtues, he practised rigid 
abstinence from what belonged to others, never accepting legacies 
left him by such as had relatives.”—Dio Cass. £7, 17. 

+“About this time, Pius Aurelius the senator, whose house, yield¬ 
ing to the pressure of the public roads and aqueducts, had fallen, 



202 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


nor was it confined to pecuniary manifestations alone 


complained to the senate and prayed relief. Opposed by the pretors 
of the treasury, he was aided by Tiberius, who paid him the price of 
his house, for he was fond of being liberal upon fair occasions. * * 
Upon Propertius Celer, once pretor, but now desiring leave to resign 
the dignity of senator on the score of poverty, he bestowed a thous¬ 
and great sesterces, upon satisfactory information that his necessities 
were derived from his father. Others, who attempted the same 
thing, he ordered to prove their allegations to the Senate.”—Tacitus 
An. I, 75 , Bohn’s trans. altered. 

“As he relieved the honest poverty of the virtuous, so he degraded 
from the Senate (or suffered to quit it of their own accord) Vibidius 
Varro, Marius Nepos, Appius Appinaus, Cornelius Sylla, and Quin¬ 
tus Vitellius, who were spendthrifts, and brought themselves to pov¬ 
erty by misconduct.”—Tacitus, An. 2, 48, Boha’s trans. 

“He spent very little on himself, very much on the com¬ 
munity, * * * giving much aid to cities and private individuals. 

To many poor senators, who because of poverty would [could?] not 
attend the Senate, he gave (the requisite) wealth, yet not indiscrim¬ 
inately [compare Tacitus An. 1, 75], * * * and whatever he 

gave was counted to them before his eyes. Because under Augustus 
the paymasters appropriated to themselves large portions of such 
sums, (Tiberius) was rigidly on his guard that nothing of that kind 
should happen under him.”—Dio Cass. 57, 10. 

To Atilius Buta “confessing his poverty after an immense patri¬ 
mony had been consummed, Tiberius remarked, ‘You have been late 
in waking up.’”—Seneca, Epist. 122,11. The phraseology of the 
remark indicates anything but moral indifference to waste. 

JTiberius “gave largely to cities and individuals, NOR was he 
willing TO accept (public) honor or praise because of his gifts.”" 
—Dio Cass. 57, ir. “The Sardians * * * received the greatest 

share of compassion, for Tiberius promised them a hundred thous¬ 
and great sesterces, and remitted all their contributions to the public 
treasury and the prince’s privy purse, for five years.”—Tacitus, An. 
2, 47, Bohn’s traus. altered. 

“The city was visited with a fire which raged with unusual vio¬ 
lence, and entirely consumed Mount Caelius ; * * * the emperor 

dissipated their murmurs by bestowing on each sufferer money to 





SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 203 

but showed itself in ways which indicated an active 
personal interest in the welfare of others.* * 

Moral earnestness is sometimes, though not 
always, associated with attention to life’s courtesies. 
Tiberius practised these and the kindly offices of 
life equally in his retirement at Rhodesf and in his 
term of imperial power. J The fearful experiences. 


the extent of his damage : hence he had the thanks of men of rank 
in the Senate ; anc 1 was rewarded with applause by the populace, for 
that without any views of ambition, or the importunities of friends, 
he had of his own free will sought out the sufferers, though 
unknown to him, and relieved them by his bounty.”—Tacitus, 
An. 4, 64, Bohn’s trans. 

“The same year the city suffered grievously from a Are ; * * *- 

he paid the value of the houses and clusters of tenements destroyed. 
A hundred thousand great sesterces he expended in this bounty, 
which proved the more grateful to the people, as he was ever spar¬ 
ing in his own private building. ’’—Tacitus, An. 6, 45, Bohns 
trans. 

*At Rhodes “one morning, in settling the course of his daily ex¬ 
cursion, he happened to say that he should visit all the sick people 
in the town. This being not rightly understood by those about him, 
the sick were brought into a small portico, and ranged in order, ac¬ 
cording to their several distempers. Being extremely embarrassed 
by this unexpected occurence, he was for some time irresolute how 
he should act ; but at last he determined to go round them all, and 
make an apology for the mistake even to the meanest among 
them, and such as were entirely unknown to him.”—Sueton. Tib. n, 
Bohn’s trans. 

t“He led entirely a private life, taking his walks sometimes about 
the Gymnasia, without any lictor, or other attendant, and returning 
the civilities of the Greeks with almost as much complaisance as if 
he had been upon a level with them.’’—Sueton. Tib. 11, Bohn’s 
trans. 

S“He was very easy of access and ready to be spoken to. * * *r 



204 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CyESAR. 


both public and private, through which he passed, 
would, in most men, have chilled them, yet he re¬ 
tained his social kindliness to the close of life.* * His 
abhorrence for brutalizing games did not prevent 
interest in such as were innocent,]; or else in the en¬ 
joyment of those who frequented them, and among 
his minor habits one indicates perhaps a limited de¬ 
gree of playfulness.§ 


When he invited them (any of the magistrates) to his table, he re¬ 
ceived them at the door and accompanied them thereto on bidding 
them good-by. * * * He mingled with his associates as a pri¬ 

vate person. In their lawsuits he acted as an advocate; after their 
sacrifice [did he abstain from these?] he attended their feasts ; when 
THEY WERE sick he watched with (literally, ‘over’) THEM, un¬ 
attended by any guard ; and for one of them when dead he delivered 
the funeral address.”—Dio Cass. 57, n. The gratuitous labor of 
advocate, according to Roman views, seems to have been in certain 
cases a duty not to be neglected. 

*When the last illness of Tiberius was coming on, and some 
friends were supping with him, Charicles, the physician, rose to 
leave, kissed the hand of Tiberius and felt his pulse. He probably 
wished to break up the company so as not to over-fatigue him. Ti¬ 
berius asked him to take his place again and continued the enter¬ 
tainment. Nor, when it was over, “did he abstain from his cus¬ 
tom, but supporting himself on the couch, with the aid of a lictor, 
he addressed each as they said good-by.”—Sueton. Tib. 72. 

+“At ‘fairs,’ or whatever afforded a holiday to the multitude, he 
would, coming on the preceding evening to the house of some one 
of his tenants in the neighborhood of the gathering, spend the night 
there, so as to be most promptly and conveniently accessible ; and he 
frequently watched the horse-races from the window of some one of his 
freedmen.”—Dio Cass. 57, 11. 

§In South Germany the author found, that, if some one in the 
stage-coach sneezed, immediately one or more hats would be lifted 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


205 


Then as now the use of a foreign language was* 
in many instances, a result of affectation.* Tiberius, 
though well acquainted with Greek, showed his 
simplicity of character, aside from other ways, by 
conversing in his mother tongue.f 

Moral earnestness seeks approval from the con¬ 
science of others rather than favor from their feel¬ 
ings ; it is not ambitious of titles nor prone to take 
offence. The remark of Tiberius touching dislike 
which he had incurred, “Let them hate if only they 
approve,”! could hardly come from any one save a 
conscientious man trying to do right. His dislike 
of titles is one among the evidences of an unambi¬ 
tious man§ trying to do right, whilst several incidents 
show his absence of jealousy.* 


with the greeting, “Your health.” He has been told by travellers in 
Italy, that the same custom prevails there. It is two thousand years 
old, for the elder Pliny remarks [Nat. Hist. 28, 5, 2]; “Why salu- 
tai 7 ius do we salute, or say, ‘health to’ a sneeze, which custom they 
say that Tiberius, the least mirthful certainly of men, exacted 
when in his carriage. ” 

““No woman thinks herself beautiful until from a Tuscan she has 
been metamorphosed into a miniature Greek. * * * In this 

language they manifest fright: in it they express joy, anger, weari¬ 
ness.”—Juvenile, Sat. 6, 186-189. 

tSee Suetonius, Tib. 71, and Dio Cassius, 57, 15. Tiberius must, 
in the Senate at least, have carried this to a noticeable extent; for 
when he had occasion to use the word monopoly , he apologized for 
using one borrowed from a foreign language. 

JSueton. Tib. 59. 

§“He did not permit himself to be called dominum, master, by 
freedmen, nor emperor, literally ‘commander’, imperatorem , except 
by the soldiers ; he wholly refused the appellation, ‘father of his 



206 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


Tiberius had in early life proved himself an able 
and humane general.f During his reign he main¬ 
tained peace.I This peacefulness was the result 


country.’ He did not add, to his signature, the title Augustus, or 
august, which he never permitted to be voted him, but tolerated it 
when spoken or written to himself, and as often as he corresponded 
with certain kings he himself added it. He was commonly called 
Caesar, occasionally Germanicus, from his deeds in Germany, and, 
even by himself, according to old custom, Primate (or presiding offi¬ 
cer) of the Senate. He said that, ‘I am master of my slaves, com¬ 
mander of the soldiers, but primate of the others.’ And prayed, 
when the question came up, that he might live and rule only so 
long as beneficial to the public. Thus in all things he behaved so 
much as a private man, that he would not permit anything unusual 
on his birthday.”—Dio Cass. 57, 8. Cp. note 14. 

*“ Rufus Helvius, a common soldier, acquired the glory of saving 
a citizen, and was, by Apronius, presented with the spear and collar. 
Tiberius added the civic crown, complaining rather than offended 
that Apronius had not in his own right as proconsul granted that 
also. * * * Tiberius * * * granted to Blaesus that he should 

be by the legions saluted Imperator , commander, emperor. * * * 

Junia, * * * sister of M. Brutus and wife of C. Cassius, * * * 

having honorably distinguished with legacies almost all the great 
men of Rome, she omitted Tiberius,—an omission which drew from 
him no indications of offended dignity, nor did he hinder her pane¬ 
gyric from being pronounced from the rostra, nor her funeral from 
being celebrated with all the other customary solemnities.”—Tacitus 
An. 3, 21, 74, 76, Bohn’s trans. 

tSee Suetonius, Tib. 9, 16-19. 

^“Tiberius, * * * who never allowed any seed of war to 

smoulder or to raise its head either in Greece or in the territory of 
the barbarians, and who bestowed peace and the blessings of peace 
up to the end of his life, with a rich and most bounteous hand and 
mind, upon the whole empire and the whole world.”—Philo, Em- 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS C/ESAR. 


207 


neither of thoughtless sentiment nor of indolence* * as 
is evident from his early life and from the energy 
of his dealings with the freebooter Tacfarinas, and 
with robbers and rogues generally.* The same 
love of peace showed itself in his private relations 
and in his dislike of trifling accusations. At Rhodes 
he interposed as peacemaker between sophists who 
had quarrelled : and his only exercise, during eight 
years’ stay there, of his authority as a magistrate 
was to imprison a man whose fault-finding must 
have tended to start the quarrel afresh.f A wish 
to conciliate furnishes the most probable explana¬ 
tion of the apple offered to Agrippina, his ambitious 
daughter-in-law.* His dislike of trifling charges 


“bassy, 21, Bohn’s trans. “The matter upon which I am occupied 
is * * * a state of undisturbed peace, or only interrupted in a 

limited degree * * * and a prince indifferent about ex¬ 

tending the bounds of the empire.” —Tacitus, An. 4, 32, 
Bohn’s trans. 

* Tacitus, An. 3, 73, 74. 

+“One instance only is mentioned in which he appeared to exer¬ 
cise his tribunitian authority. Being a constant attendant upon the 
schools and lecture-rooms of the professors of the liberal arts, on 
occasion of a quarrel among the wrangling sophists in which he in¬ 
terposed to reconcile them, some person took the liberty to abuse 
him as an intruder and partial in the affair. Upon this withdrawing 
privately home, he suddenly returned attended by his officers, and 
summoning his accuser before his tribunal by a public crier, ordered 
him to be taken to prison.”—Sueton. Tib. 11, Bohn’s trans. 

JHe had, in answer to some of her importunities, taken her hand 
and remarked, “You think, my child, if you do not rule, that an in¬ 
jury is done you.”—Sueton. Tib. 53. Compare Tacitus, An. 4, 52. 
At table, after this conversation, Agrippina seems to have been too 



208 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


may have been due partly to his sense of justice and. 
partly to his love of peace.* * 

Moral earnestness looks upon power as a trash 
Tiberius among all the emperors laid before the 
Senate, when entering upon office, a detailed state¬ 
ment of his trust.f At the close of life his anxiety 


ill-humored to eat. Tiberius commended some apples, picked one 
out and handed it to her. She threw it to one of the servants. 
Tiberius remarked to his mother that she treated it as if poisoned. 
[Tacitus, An. 4, 54.] The leading facts as mentioned by Tacitus 
are here narrated, but without his interpretation of them. 

*On one occasion, when two individuals consecutively had been 
charged with disrespect for the divinity of Augustus, Tiberius wrote 
to the consul “that the object in deifying his father was not to facil¬ 
itate the destruction of citizens.”—Tacitus, An. 1,73. On another 
occasion [Tac. An. 1, 74] a persistent attempt was made in the 
Senate to fasten on a man some charge of conversation disrespectful 
to Tiberius. It was skilfully concluded with an allegation that the 
accused had cut the head from a statue of Augustus and substituted 
a head of Tiberius. This, it was probably supposed, would prevent 
the emperor from advocating the man’s cause, lest he should thereby 
seem to count himself above Augustus. Tiberius for once lost 
patience, and said that he also in this case would give his opinion 
and under oath, so as to compel a like course on the part of the 
Senate. Piso, a senator of independent character, restored the em¬ 
peror’s eqanimity by calling out to him, “In what place, Caesar, will 
you vote? If first, I shall have something to guide me ; if after all 
others, I fear that I might incautiously dissent from you.” This sar¬ 
casm on the lack of manliness in the Senate recalled Tiberius ap¬ 
parently to a consciousness that the sccuser was appealing, not to- 
any supposed sensitiveness in himself, but to senatorial servility. 
He quietly “gave his opinion tulit [ sententiam ] that the defendant 
should be acquittted of these charges of bad citizenship.” Some 
pecuniary charges were referred to the civil tribunal. 

fTacitus, An. 1, 11. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


209 


was conscientious as to its transmission.* He seems 
to have preferred certain, rather than severe, pun¬ 
ishments,! and to have advoided such as degrade 
men or diminish self-respect..[ 

Justice loves openness in questions of public ad¬ 
ministration. Tiberius exerted himself to secure 
open and fair hearing as well as intelligent decision.§ 
His selection of men who could, during a lifetime, 
retain office satisfactorily to those whom they ruled, || 


*Tacitus represents in his Annals 6, 46, that Tiberius, in his 
last days, weighed carefully the qualifications, as a successor, of his 
grandson, of his brother’s grandson Caligula, of his nephew Claudius, 
and THOUGHT EVEN OF PERSONS NOT BELONGING TO HIS OWN 
Family. No one fully satisfied him and he did not make a choice. 
Tacitus adds (Ibid): “favor with contemporaries was to him, 

OF LESS MOMENT THAN THE EFFORT FOR HONOR AMONG POSTER¬ 
ITY.” Tacitus, on this point, gives his testimony without, appar¬ 
ently, appreciating its value. 

+No reliable record exists of any one having been put to death by- 
Tiberius. “He gave special attention to preserving the peace, i. e. 
the public security, against bandits, robbers, and mob violence. * * 
He rigidly repressed popular tumults and guarded against their oc¬ 
currence. When slaughter had been caused by quarrel in a theatre, 
he banished the leaders of the faction and the players who were its 
cause, nor could he by any prayers of the people be forced into re¬ 
calling them.”—Sueton. Tib. 37. 

^Corporal punishments were unknown In his time. See no, 5. 

§“IIe never transacted business alone with the envoys from cities 
or nations, but always appointed a number as participants in the in¬ 
vestigation, and especially those who had once been their governors.”' 
►—Dio Cass, 57, 17. 

||“This, too, was part of the policy of Tiberius, to continue per¬ 
sons in offices, and for the most part to maintain them in the same 
military authority or civil employments to the end of their lives.”— 



210 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


attests not only his good sense and scrupulous con¬ 
sideration of character, but also his moral sense since 
a deficiency in this direction would have precluded 
any such result. Two governors of his appoint¬ 
ment have been sketched or mentioned by mono¬ 
theists. One of them, Flaccus, is portrayed by 
Philo, his unscrupulous enemy.* * Of another, Pilate, 
we have some view in Josephus and the Gospels.f 


Tacitus, An. i, 80, Bohn’s trans. No governor appointed by Tiber¬ 
ius was ever, while alive, charged with, or prosecuted for, malversa¬ 
tion in office. 

*See Ch. V. note 66. 

f Josephus pictured Pilate with no friendly pen, yet he furnishes, 
with his usual embellishments the following facts. The Roman 
soldiers came from Caesarea to Jerusalem by night,—possibly to di¬ 
minish chances of offence. The Jews objected to the images on their 
standards [Antiq. 18, 3, 1.] Pilate, after finding that the matter 
might cause trouble, sent, though not without a little delay, the 
images back to Caesarea. He found that the city needed water, and 
that a large sum of money was lying in the temple useless, or prob¬ 
ably worse than useless, since unprincipled men must have found 
means to misuse it (compare Ch. 11. notes 33, 34). He took the 
money, made an aqueduct [Antiq. 18, 3, 2), and repressed the mob 
which followed. Josephus shows him to have been energetic, utili¬ 
tarian, and gifted with administrative power. 

If we turn to the Gospels we find that before this Pilate, a man 
w r as brought whom the leading Jews were determined to have put to 
death. Pilate tried hard to save him, but in order to accomplish it 
must have incurred risk of an accusation from the conservative Jews, 
who, in the existing state of parties at Rome, after the death of 
Senjanus, could have effected his ruin. This he had not, apparently, 
nerve to meet. But the governor who could not, to save himself, 
permit the execution of an innocent peasant—for such Jesus must 
have seemed to him—without repeated effort in his behalf (Matt. 27, 
17-26 ; Mark, 15, 10-15 ; Luke, 23, 4, 14-25 ; John, 18, 38 ; 19, 4-16) 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


211 


Although the surroundings of Tiberius, and 
many circumstances in his life, must have tended to 
repress affectionateness in his manner, yet two or 
three recorded instances show that it not only dwelt 
within, but that it occasionally showed itself. The 
final parting from his first wife, and the efforts to 
prevent his ever seeing her again, admit no expla¬ 
nation unless he were affectionate* His joy when 
he became a grandfather implies fairly the same 
quality in his old age,f and his behavior at the death 
of Augustus is most naturally explained by the same 


was not indifferent to justice. He had a keen conscience, though 
his moral strength did not equal the demand upon it. 

*“Our children * * * are (judicially) in our own power, which 

right is a peculiarity of Roman citizens, for there are almost no 
other men who have such power over their children as we (Ro¬ 
mans).”—Gaius, Instit. 

Tiberius deferred, for two years, marrying Julia. This was 
[Smith, Diet, of Antiq p. 741, col. 2] the longest legal limit for a 
betrothal. When she was banished at a later date by her father, her 
husband was thoughtful and considerate. He asked [Suetonius, Tib. 
11] in repeated letters, that any presents he had given her might not 
be taken away. The previously divorced wife of Tiberius was sub¬ 
ject to legal penalties (see Ch. viii. note 77) if she did not remarry 
in six months. She married Asinius Gallus [mentioned in Ch. viii. 
note 102,] between whom and her first husband friendship seems to 
have remained unbroken. He is mentioned by Dio Cassius, 58 , 3, 
as dining with Tiberius in a. d. 30, and as receiving fi'om him a 
guard against his enemies. 

+“Livia, sister of Germanicus, wife of Drusus, gave birth to twin 
boys, which * * * caused the prince so much joy, that he could 

not refrain from boasting (?) to the Fathers, that to no Roman, pre¬ 
viously, of the same rank, had twins been born.”—Tacitus, 
An. 2, 84. 



212 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


characteristic. None but an affectionate person 
would, under the circumstances mentioned in note 
36 , have taken the hand of the person whom he 
addressed. 

The repugnance of Tiberius for any manifestation 
of divine honor towards mortals may have been 
due to his moral sense, but it is so strong as almost 
to indicate monotheistic leanings. It was certainly 
not due to any regard for the heathen religion.* * 

§11. His Retirement to Ca'preoe 

Augustus had acquired the island of Capreae as a 
pleasant country residence.! Tiberius built twelve 


*Tiberius “was negligentior, rather negligent in regard to the gods 
and religious observance because (?) addicted to astrology.”—Sue- 
ton. J'ib. 69. Drusus his son was blamed, by the patrician party, 
doubtless, for neglecting the gods of Rome and the initiatory au¬ 
spices (see Tac. An. 3, 59). It deserves note, also, that the daughter 
of this Drusus, when expelled from Rome, was mourned most pub¬ 
licly by a friend who was subsequently charged with foreign supersti¬ 
tion, that is, with monotheism. 

t“Augustus, having taken a fancy to Capreae, * * * took pos¬ 

session of it as part of the imperial domain, giving the Neapolitans 
in exchange the far more wealthy island of ^Enaria. * * * He 

appears to have visited it repeatedly. * * * Tiberius * * * 

erected not less than twelve villas in different parts of the island. 

* * * Excavations in modern times have brought to light mosaic 

pavements, bas-reliefs, cameos, gems, and other relics of antiquity.” 
—Smith, Diet, of Geog. 1, p. 509, col. 2. 

According to the New Am. Cyclopaedia (art. Capri), the island “is 
still celebrated for the beauty of its climate, * * * is about 

nine miles in circumference,” and is frequented by quails, “vast num¬ 
bers of which are caught every spring and autumn on their passage 
from and to Africa.” 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CyESAR. 


213 


or more tasteful villas upon it. and retired thither 
A. d. 26, with a select number of friends, men of 
culture and of business capacity. Several reasons 
may have prompted him to this. He was almost 
seventy, and may have needed respite from the 
fatigues of city life. He may also have felt that if 
he lived separately from his mother, it would be 
more difficult for her to compromise him, and he 
would avoid any need of controlling her.* * Yet fur- 

The relics in these villas, as well as a passage of the elder Pliny, 
convey the impression that Tiberius had a liking for the fine arts. 
Pliny specifies two paintings (a Gallic high-priest, Net. Hist. 35, 36, 
10 ; and a bather using the strigil , or scraper, Nat. Hist. 34, 19, 13) 
as having especially commended themselves to the emperor. 

*“She was greatly puffed up beyond all women who preceded her. 

* * * Except that she did not venture upon entering the Senate, 

the camps, or the assemblies, she endeavored to administer all things 
as if sole ruler; eventually Tiberius excluded her entirely from 
public affairs, while allowing her control of matters at home. Then 
as she proved, even in these matters, a burden, he often left home 
and in every way avoided her, so that she was by no means the least 
of his reasons for removing to Caprese.”—Dio Cass. 57; 12. 

This mother must have severly tried her son’s sense of justice and 
propriety. At one time a lady, unwilling to pay her debts, took 
refuge with the mother, who insisted (Tac. An. 2, 34) that Tiberius 
should have the proceedings against her stopped. At another she 
had determined (Dio Cass. 57, 12) to dedicate a statue to Augus¬ 
tus (as a god), and to make a great feast for the senators, knights, 
and their wives. Tiberius obviated the impropriety by feasting the 
men and letting her take the women. He required as a preliminary 
to the statue, that the Senate should vote assent. She must, then or 
subsequently, have carried her point, for, much to his disgust, she 
not only dedicated a statue (Tac. An. 3, 64), but added his name to 
her own as concerned in the performance, a total misrepresentation 
(see note 48) of his position on such matters. In much of this she 
-was doubtless the unconscious tool of patricians. 



214 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


ther, he may have noticed steps of the aristocratic 9 
towards a rebellion such as subsequently broke out, 
and he may have felt that, by living at some dis¬ 
tance from the city, he could escape the need of 
measures for self-protection. The published state¬ 
ments of treasury disbursements ceased from the 
date when he left Rome (Dio Gass. 56, 9.) a pretty 
sure evidence that his enemies were misapplying 
these disbursements. Among the companions of 
this retirement was the eminent jurist Nerva, 
against whom not even his political enemies have 
a word to allege :* Flaccus, the statesman and 
man of culture, gifted with uncommon administra¬ 
tive ability, and whose abode at Alexandria was 
the seat of refinement ;f Macro, combining the 
qualities of military commander with those of mor¬ 
alist and teacher ;J and Curtius Atticus, a Roman 


*Nerva was a law-pupil of the Labeo mentioned on pp. 171, 172, 
and is lauded by Tacitus (An. 6, 26) as “acquainted with all law, 
human and divine.” 

+See Ch. V. notes 66, 82. Flaccus must have remained among the 
intimate companions of Tiberius until sent in A. D. 32 as governor 
to Egypt, and. if Philo can be trusted (Against Flaccus, 3, Bohn’s 
trans. Vol. 4, p. 63; Paris edit. p. 663, 11. 29-31), he, when Tiber¬ 
ius died, grieved as for a personal friend. 

JMacro’s military qualities are attested not merely by the office to 
which the disciplined judgment of Tiberius appointed him, but by 
his prompt suppression of the pre-arranged patrician rebellion of 
a. D. 31. His moral qualities are protrayed by Philo, who at least 
had means of knowing, for Herod Agrippa, the father-in-law of 
Philo’s niece, lived for a time at Capreae, associating much with the 
young Caligula, for whose moral training Marco seems to have ex¬ 
erted himself. According to Philo (Embassy, 7, 8), Marco tried 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


215 


knight. He was also accompanied by Greek and 
Latin scholars.* His respected and cherished sis¬ 
ter-in-law Antonia (with not improbably the wives 
of some among the officers) contributed, occasion¬ 
ally at least, feminine influences to this select 
society, f * 


faithfully, in his intercourse with Caligula, to give him good aims, so 
that the latter on meeting him would say, ‘Here is * * * the 

pedagogue.’—Philo, Paris edit. p. 687; Bohn’s trans. 4, p. hi. 

*“His departure was with a small number of companions : one 
consular senator, Cocceius Nerva, skilled in the laws; a Roman 
knight, Curtius Atticus, who, as well as Sejanus, was among the dis¬ 
tinguished ones; others gifted in liberal studies, chiefly Greeks, by 
whose conversation he might be refreshed.”—Tacitus, An. 4, 58. 

fAntonia was a daughter of Marc Antony and of Octavia, sister 
to Augustus. Smith’s Dictionary (art. Antonia, 6) mentions her as 
“celebrated for her beauty, virtue, and chastity.” Josephus says 
(Antiq. 18, 6, 6) that “she was in all respects honored by Tiberius,” 
and mentions her (Antiq. 18, 6, 4; cp. 6) among the society of his 
retirement. She was probably a monotheist, for not only was her' 
intimate friend in early days a Jewess, but her business agent and 
superintendent of her estates in Alexandria was the Jewish ethnarch 
in that city, brother of Philo. Further : though her husband had 
been senatorial in politics, yet the Senate for some reason ignored 
herself until a grandson, whom they hoped to please, sat upon the 
throne. Then in a single decree (Sueton. Calig. 15) they, for the 
sake, doubtless, of currying favor, voted her all the honors which 
had ever been conferred on Livia. This was overshooting the 
mark, since it made her, among other things, Priestess of Augustus. 
The relations of Antonia to her dependents are illustrated by the 
remark of Csenis, her freed woman, subsequently the cherished vufe of 
Vespasian, who, when told to forget something, replied, “It is useless, 
mistress, to give me such a direction, for these and all other things 
which YOU tell me are so fixed in my mind, that it is impossible to 
forget them.”—Dio Cass. 66, 14. 



216 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


Tiberius at Capreoe must have continued his pre¬ 
viously industrious habits. He left Memoirs , part, 
at least, of which were written here, for they inclu¬ 
ded matters occurring after he left Rome. His 
attention to the political and financial interests of 
the community suffered no diminution.* In his 
benevolence, which continued to be frequent and 
copious,! it is noteworthy that the younger members 
of his family were called upon for responsible and 
arduous duty.* His superintendence of his own fiscal 
matters must have been good, for, in spite of benevo¬ 
lence and absence of avarice, he left a large fortune.§ 
The rules of social morality which he had laid down 


*“He paid exceeding attention that they, the Senate, should con¬ 
vene as often as duty required, and that they should neither meet 
later than appointed, nor be dismissed earlier. On this head he re¬ 
peatedly gave injunctions to the consuls, and sometimes directed 
things to be read by them to the Senate which he was accustomed 
to do in reference to other kinds of business, as if he could not write 
directly to the Senate. “—Dio Cass. 58, 21, under a. d. 33 ; see also 
in the next note the attention of Tiberius to financial matters. 

fTiberius in A. D. 27 relieved the sufferers by a fire [Tacitus, An. 
4, 64,] and in a. D. 33 relieved a financial crisis [Dio Cass. 58, 21] 
by lending without interest. Multitudes, of course, needed this re¬ 
lief, and it could be safely given only after examination of their 
assets. In A. D. 36 he relieved [Dio Cass. 58, 26] sufferers by inun¬ 
dation. In the same year [Tacitus, An. 6, 45, quoted in note 19] 
he relieved the sufferers by an extensive fire. 

J“For estimating each one’s loss, the four husbands of Caesar’s 
grand-daughters, Cneius Domitius, Cassius Longinus, Marcus Vini- 
cius, Rubellius Blandus, were selected; Publius Petronius being 
added by nomination of the consuls,”—Tacitus, An. 6, 45. 

§Sueton. Calig. 37. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS C/ESAR. 


217 


in public were, if we may believe Josephus, carried 
out with equal strictness in his retirement.! His 
offices of kindness were not forgotten, and when 
Nerva was on his death-bed the friend who watched 
by his side was Tiberius.J His thoughtfulness in 
the administration of business was unabated ; and 
when, in A. d. 32, the governor of Egypt died, he 
temporarily sent one of his freedmen thither,§ thus 
giving himself leisure to select a successor, Flaccus, 
who approved himself in the office. || 


tAccording to Josephus, Antiq. 18, 6, 4, Herod Agrippa, subse¬ 
quently king, came to visit Tiberius and met with a kindly reception. 
Trustworthy advice, promptly following, said that his object was to 
avoid creditors and honest debts. Tiberius “was greatly pained on 
perusing this epistle,” and declined further intercourse while the 
debts were unpaid, which was therefore soon effected. Perhaps Ti¬ 
berius had yef other advice (see p. 99) concerning Herod, and merely 
tolerated him in kindness to Antonia. 

:J:The nature of Nerva’s death renders probable that he suffered 
from weakness of stomach, as did his grandson; the Emperor Nerva, 
and perhaps, also, that, like his grandson he may have been more 
distinguished by gentle goodness than by rugged strength. An at¬ 
tempted enforcement of usury laws had produced, in a. d. 33, finan¬ 
cial disorder and distress. Nerva, in the midst of it, was, according 
to Dio Cassius 58, 21, depressed by anticipations of fraud and dis¬ 
turbance. If he could be depressed, his nervous system must already 
have been shocked by partisan murders at Rome. Tiberius sought 
to encourage him, as also to elicit his views on the course to be pur¬ 
sued. Tenderness of friendship, one might think, should escape de¬ 
famation, but the traducers of Tiberius represent the death of Nerva 
as due to voluntary starvation caused by his weariness of the em¬ 
peror. 

§Dio Cass. 58, 19. 

|| See Ch. v. note 66. 



218 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


The residence at Capreae was diversified by occa¬ 
sional visits elsewhere.* During it most of the em¬ 
peror’s grandchildren, adoptive or otherwise, were 
married. One of them, Caligula, chose a wile 
whose father belonged to the bitter opponents of 
Tiberius, yet the latter does not seem to have made 
any objections, nor to have altered his relations 
towards Caligula because of it. 

Tactitus and Suetonius, unsupported by Dio Cas¬ 
sius, tell us that Tiberius, retiring to Capreae when 
he was almost three score years and ten, com¬ 
menced around of debauchery so vile that a modern 
brothel would be decent in comparison. The story, 
originated in a queer joke,f was propagated by party 
malignity, and countenanced by prevalent dissolute¬ 
ness. It would deserve no notice, save for the wide 
credence which it has received. 


*Suetonius mentions [Tib. 40] a visit to the continent, which must 
have been in a. D. 27 ; Tacitus, An. 4, 74, relates a visit in the year 
28 to Campania ; Dio Cassius mentions, 58, 3, a hospitality towards 
Callus in a. d. 30, which seems to imply proximity to the city; and 
[58, 21] a residence in a. D. 33 in the suburbs of Rome, and repeated 
visits thither [58, 24] about the close of the same year ; and a stay 
[58, 25] at Antium in a. D. 35 ; Tacitus speaks, An. 6, 39, of Tiber¬ 
ius as near Rome in the last mentioned year ; Josephus speaks,. 
Antiq. 18, 6, 6, of events in a. d. 3'), during a stay in the neighbor¬ 
hood of Tusculum, a locality twelve or fifteen miles from Rome, 
where wealthy citizens had their couutry residences, and at the date 
of his last illness, in a. d. 37, Tiberius was at Misenum. 

+The name of the island, Capreae, or Capri, led some one to call 
him Caprineus , which might mean, either a resident in Capri, or, by 
a play on words, a grossly dissolute man. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


219 


§ in. Patrician Revolt of A. D. ji. 

At the death of Augustus the patricians had ar¬ 
ranged measures, which proved abortive, to prevent 
the accession of Tiberius. In a. d. 19, 20, they 
were planning rebellion, with Germanicus as a 
leader. His death aided in breaking up their 
projects. In A. d. 31 a patrician outbreak took 
place, the widow of Germanicus being either its 
nominal head or among its active managers. Some 
prelude to it occurred in the previous year, as we 
may infer from the appointment of a military guard 
to protect a popular leader.* The outbreak was 
prearranged, for one or more vessels put to sea in 
Greece; and by those interested, a son of German¬ 
icus was alleged to accompany, or head, the expe¬ 
dition,! which had for its object the invasion of Sy¬ 
ria or Egypt. 


*“On the same day that Gallus dined with Tiberius, drinking 
with him in friendship, he was condemned by a decree of the Sen¬ 
ate ; So that a pretor was sent to bind him and lead him to punish¬ 
ment. And yet Tiberius acting thus (?) * * * exhorted him to 

be ( of good courage, directing that he be guarded without bonds 
until he [Tiberius] himself should come to the city ; * * * and 

he was guarded by the consuls save in the consularship of Tiberius, 
for then he was guarded by the pretors.”—Dio Cass. 58, 3. 

+“About the same time Greece and Asia were dismayed by a 
rumor more rife than lasting, ‘that Drusus, a son of Germanicus, 
had been seen in the Cyclades, and soon afterwards upon the conti¬ 
nent.’ And there was indeed a youth nearly of the same age, to 
whom some of the emperor’s freedmen, as if he were recognized by 
them, attached themselves, with the purpose (?) of betraying him. 
The unwary were allured by the splendor of the name, the Greeks 
being prone to catch at anything new and marvellous; so much so 



220 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


The consuls, at the date ol the rebellion, were 
Trio and Regulus. The former was an unscrupu¬ 
lous politician with whom Tiberius had at one time 
declined intercourse, and who had afterwards wished 
to make himself prominent, in the year 20, as a 
prosecutor of the emperor’s friend Piso.* Regulus 
does not seem to have intended rebellion, but to 
have been entrapped by fraud into giving it unin¬ 
tentional aid.f The time selected for it was coin- 


that they imagined, ‘that, escaped from custody and proceeding to 
the armies of his father, he ivould invade Syria or Egypt. He was 
now attended by a crowd of young men, and thronged with eager 
partisans, elated with his present success, and airy hopes, when the 
story reached Poppaeus Sabinus. He w r as at that juncture engaged 
in Macedonia, and likewise had charge of Greece ; to obviate the 
mischief, whether the account|were true or false, he hastily passed 
the bay of Torone and that of Therme; and presently reached 
Euboea, an island of the ^Egean Sea, and Piraeus, on the coast of 
Attica ; he then passed along the coast of Corinth, and the straits of 
the Isthmus; and, by another sea, entered Nicopolis, a Roman col¬ 
ony. There at length he learned, that, being shrewdly questioned, 
he had declared himself the son of Marcus Silanus ; and that many 
of his followers having fallen off, he had embarked, as if he meant 
to sail to Italy. Sabinus sent this account to Tiberius, and further 
than this we {have found nothing (?) of the origin or issue of that 
affair.”—Tacitus, An. 6, io, Bohn’s trans. The young man, accord¬ 
ing 4 to Dio Cassius 58, 25, was sent to Tiberius. Silanus, father of 
the boy here mentioned, was one of the high aristocracy, consul 
during the reactionary proceedings of a. d. 19. His lack of moral 
sensibility was shown in a. D. 20, by his public, instead of private, 
thanks for the permitted return of a brother who had disgraced him¬ 
self. Tacitus when writing the above must have known that the 
expedition was part of a pre-arranged senatorial rebellion. 

*See p. 192. 

+After the rebellion was crushed “Trio * * * had indirectly 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


221 


cident with a change in the command of a pretorian 
cohort. Sejanus had been their commander, much 
to the chagrin of the ultra aristocracy,—who felt 
galled at seeing one of the inferior order acting as 
the emperor’s right-hand man,* *—and of Agrippina 
who deemed him an opponent of her aims. Tibe¬ 
rius, with no unfriendliness towards him,f found 


blamed Regulus as backward in crushing the agents of Sejanus. He 
* * * not only repelled his colleague, but brought him to an in¬ 

vestigation as guilty of conspiracy.”—Tacitus, An. 5, n. 

*This statement scarcely needs proof, but abundant evidence in its 
support may be found in Velleius Paterculus, 2, 128. That author, 
writing whilst his friend Sejanus was in power, quotes a long list of 
distinguished individuals, not of patrician ancestry, who, because of 
their merits, had been elevated to high position at Rome. He ar¬ 
gues that Tiberius, the Senate, and the people had but followed 
ancient precedent in elevating an unusually competent man. The 
argument implies a class who decried Sejanus because of his origin. 
It is but fair to give this friend’s opinion of Sejanus : “A man most 
genial even in gravity; of pristine cheerfulness ; laborious without 
showing it; totally unassuming, and for that reason heaped with 
honors; always measuring himself below the estimate of others ; 
tranquil in countenance and disposition; of sleepless mental activity.” 
—Vel. Pater. 2, 127. 

+Suetonius, Tib. 61, restates, or quotes from a restatement by 
some one else, a passage from the Memoirs of Tiberius, “that he had 
punished (?) Sejanus because he had found him filled with animosity 
against the children of his son Germanicus.” Sejannm se punisse 
quod comperisset furere adversus liberos Germanicifilii sui. This 
passage is not quoted verbally, for it is written in the third person. 
Had the Memoir by Tiberius assumed responsibility for the proceed¬ 
ings against Sejanus, Tacitus would have been but too thankful to 
quote what would have saved him much inconclusive reasoning. The 
passage, in its most obvious sense, is so plainly contradicted by other 
evidence, as to show that the meaning of Tiberius has been per- 



222 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


reasons for substituting Macro, a man on kindly 
terms with Sejanus. 

Macro reached Rome at night, communicated his 
authorization to one of the consuls, Regulus, and to 
Laco, commander of the night watch. The Senate 
met on the next morning in Apollo’s Temple. 
Macro saw and held a conversation with Sejanus, 
who, “in excellent spirits over it, hurried into the 
Senate house.” He then replaced the day watch 
by the night one, perhaps because of trust in Laco ; 
entered the temple and gave a letter of Tiberius to 
the consuls; charged Laco to watchfulness, and 
went himself to the camp. 

The letter of Tiberius was opened. “It was long 
and not directed against sEjANUs”f It certain¬ 
ly did not contemplate his death, and there can 
hardly be a question that it contained no suggestion, 
repetition or desire to any one.J It ordered a guard 
for Sejanus, as a protection, doubtless, against his 
enemies. During its perusal, if Dio’s narrative be 
correct, some of the senators—perhaps by prear¬ 
rangement—left the side of Sejanus. A fictitious 
tumult was created, and his more timorous friends 


verted. The term “punished” has been substituted for removed from 
office, or for some equivalent expression. 

*Dio Cass. 58, 10. 

+The conspirators, and writers influenced by them, have done their 
best to pervert this letter into an apology for their crimes. Accord¬ 
ing to Dio Cassius 58, io, it treated various matters, found briefly 
some fault witn Sejanus in two passages; spoke near its close of two 
senators, friends of Sejanus, as deserving punishment (?), and di¬ 
rected A GUARD TO BE PLACED OVER SEJANUS. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


223 


were cowed. No distinct motion seems to have 
been before the Senate. The proceedings of the 
conspirators can be judged from the following: The 
consul “Regulus [?] did not ask the votes of all, nor 
even of a single one concerning putting him 
(Sejanus) to death, but being afraid lest some one 
should oppose, and a disturbance be made,—since 
Sejanus had many relatives and friends,—having 
asked some one and received assent, that he should 
be bound, he led him out of the Senate and into 
prison.”* Sejanus would, perhaps, have been safe 
on his own side of the house, but had been lured by 
a fraud among his enemies.f Laco, seeing his 
danger, came into the Senate room, took place by 
his side and accompanied him to prison, but may 
not. at that stage of the proceedings, have felt war¬ 
ranted in entering upon a conflict with the consul. 

Shortly afterwards, on the same day. another 
meeting of the Senate—to which were summoned 
probably only the conspirators and those whom 
they could control—took place at the temple of 
Concord near the prison. A mob had been excited 
against Sejanus, and because the Senate saw this, 


*Dio Cass. 58, 10. The impression conveyed by the above, that 
Regulus headed the action against Sejanus, is a misrepresentation 
which Dio has innocently copied. 

tRegulus, according to Dio Cass. 58, 10, called two or three times 
to Sejanus and motioned him with his hand to come to him. Se¬ 
janus, inattentive at first, asked if he were calling to him, and 
crossed over, on the supposition, apparently, that he wished to hold 
some conversation with him. If this be true, Regulus was used by 
the conspirators without knowing their object. 



224 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CiESAR. 


and “saw not one of the (pretorian) guards,”^ 
they condemned him to death. The quoted passage 
is evidence, if other were wanting, that no aid was 
expected from Macro. Sejanus, his children,! and 
many adherents of the popular party were brutally 
murdered.]; 

The mangled body of Sejanus was knocked 
about during three days before being thrown into 
the Tiber.§ How long the conspirators held sway 

*Dio Cass. 58, 11. 

+Dio Cass. 58, 11. The little daughter of Sejanus, a mere child, 
had, according to Tacitus, An. 5, 9, been violated before execution,. 
—a fate shared by others, if we may trust Suetonius. The senatorial 
faction, in whose service this was done, must, when on their defence, 
have tried to coat over the atrocity with religious varnish. “Because 
according to traditional custom, it was impious to strangle immature 
girls.”—Sueton. Tib. 61. “As if it were impious, that a virgin 
should be executed in prison.”—Dio Cass. 58, 11. “Because it was 
deemed unheard of, that a virgin should be subjected to triumvial 
punishment.”—Tacitus, An. 5,9. The triumvial court was one for 
“summary,” even capital, “punishment upon slaves and persons of 
lower rank.”—Smith, Diet, of Antiq. 1167, 1168. Tacitus, Sue¬ 
tonius, and Dio, quote this wretched attempt at an apology, as if 
they believed that the brute of an exercutioner was prompted by a 
reverence for religion. Tacitus assumes to be a moralist. His in¬ 
dignation elsewhere (An. 1, 76, quoted on p. 180) contrasts unfavor¬ 
ably with its absence here. 

£These murders expressly violated a humane enactment which 
Tiberius had ten years previously introduced, that “no one con¬ 
demned by them (the Senate) should be executed in less than ten 
days, nor within that time should the decree be deposited in the 
treasury.”—Dio Cass. 57, 20. A passage of Suetonius, Tib. 55, 
renders probable that some of the victims were from a council of 
twenty, who aided Tiberius in governing the city. Compare with it 
Caligula’s statement to the Senate in the next section. 

§Dio Cass. 58, 11. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


225 


is uncertain. They were unquestionably subdued 
before the year closed, and perhaps within a week 
or two. Not a soldier from elsewhere seems to have 
been needed, and the fleet which Tiberius held ready* 
was not called into requisition. The conspirators 
had to provide for their own safety. They made 
offers to Macro and Laco, who refused to listen .\ 
They voted honors to Tiberius. He forbade their 
consideration. J An embassy of their leading men 
went to see him. They found no admission. The 
consul Regulus tried it.§ He fared no better. 

The conspirators, while holding control, had, as 
a political measure, enacted that no one should put 
on mourning for Sejanus.|| Tiberius interfered. 


*Tiberius kept his fleet ready to depart at a moment’s notice (Dio 
Cass. 58, 13; Suetonius, Tib. 65), and had signals and watchers ar¬ 
ranged, probably against the contingency of a naval effort by the 
conspirators, or against any outside disturbance. 

+“Not long afterwards they began to flatter Macro and Laco. 
They offered them great wealth and honors, to Laco those of questor, 
to Macro those of pretor, besides allowing the latter to sit among 
them, clothed in senatorial purple during the votive public games. 
They (Laco and Macro) declined the offers.“—Dio Cass. 58, 12. 

^Concerning Tiberius they voted that “thenceforth he should be 
called Father of his Country ; that his birthday should be honored 
with ten horse-races and with a senatorial feast. He again as on 
more than one previous occasion, Dio Cass. 58, 8, forbade any one 
to introduce such a motion.”—Dio Cass. 58, 12. What must he 
have thought of them? 

§Dio Cass. 58, 13. In this connection Dio mentions that Regulus 
had “always been studious of pleasing Tiberius.” 

||“They voted * * * that no one should put on mourning for 

him (Sejanus\ and that a statue of Liberty should be erected in 
the Forum. ”Dio Cass. 58, 12. 



226 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


“He permitted all who wished it to mourn him, 
forbidding that any one should be prevented from 
doing this for any one else, which [he said] 
had been repeatedly enacted [meaning, that it was 

well-settled law]. Afterwards on account 

of Sejanus, and of those [lawlessly]* accused, he 
punished a great many and [also] those charged 
with having violated and murdered their nearest fe¬ 
male relatives.”! 

The property of Sejanus had been confiscated and 
put into the senatorial treasury, which had been 
opened by Vitellius, its prefect {Tac. An. 5 8.) in 
support of the rebellion. Justice required its resto¬ 
ration to his relatives. “The effects of Sejanus 
were taken out of the senatorial treasury, that they 
might be squeezed into that of Tiberius, on pretext 
that it should make restitution.”]; 

Not a few of the popular party had committed 
suicide ; perhaps, that they might escape death at 
the hands of malevolent opponents ; perhaps that 
they might under the Roman law, save their proper¬ 
ty for their children.§ Their confidence in Tiberius 

*The reading “lawless” is found in two manuscripts. 

’f'Dio Cass. 58, 16. 

%“Bona Sejani ablata cerario ut in Jiscum cogerentur , tanquam 
ref err ct .”—Tacitus, An. 6, 2. At this act of simple justice Tacitus 
shows his chagrin. “The Scipios (!) and Silani (!) and Cassii (!) 
with great asseveration advocated these things in nearly, or quite, 
identical language.”—Tacitus, An. 6, 2. 


§“Very little property was confiscated of such as anticipated ex¬ 
ecution by a voluntary death. * * * Nearly all the effects of 




SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


227 


was shown by devising their property to him. He, 
contrary to his custom, assumed the legacies,* and 
effected doubtless, so far as he could, their return to 
the proper heirs .\ The same confidence in Tiberius 
which these sufferers showed by their wills, was 
manifested by others in their remarks .I 

If any doubt could remain that Sejanus and his 
friends were murdered by conspirators against Ti¬ 
berius, we shall find in the next section an explicit 


those who did not die in this manner were confiscated, little or 
nothing being given to their accusers.”—Dio Cass. 58, 15, 16. The 
probability is, that, in murders committed by a conspiracy, no regu¬ 
lar prosecution took place, and, therefore, no one could possibly 
claim a “prosecutor’s share.” “Not only knights but senators, not 
only men but women, were crowded into the prison. Some were 
executed there. Others were thrown from the Capitol by the trib¬ 
unes and even by the consuls. The bodies of all were tossed into 
the Forum, and subsequently cast into the river.”—Dio Cass. 58, 15. 

*“He accepted everything left to him, and nearly all these com¬ 
pulsory suicides left their property to him.”—Dio Cass. 58, 16. 

tin the year 33 also, when Sextus Marius, on a fictitious charge 
probably, had been murdered, Tiberius took possession of his prop¬ 
erty. The narration of this by Tacitus An. 5, 19, illustrates his 
dealings with history. He affirms two things : (1,) That the large 

property of Marius was taken by Tiberius, which showed that Ti¬ 
berius had compassed HIS DEATH for the sake of his property ;(2.) 
That Tiberius was so incensed at the murder of Marius and 
others, that he disburdened his feelings by slaughtering indiscrimin¬ 
ately those in prison accused of complicity with Sejanus. The 
second statement contradicts the first. 

J“They attributed nothing or but few things to him, Tiberius, for 
they said that, as regarded most of these transactions, some he could 
not have known, and others he had been compelled to do against his 
will.”—Dio Cass. 58 , 12. 



228 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CVESAR. 


statement of Caligula to the Senate, that they, after 
spoiling Sejanus by their flattery, had put him to 
death ; and Seneca also affirms that the Senate were 
his murderers.* 

The ambitious Agrippina, who had hoped to put 
one of her sons in the place of Tiberius,—and per¬ 
haps to be practically ruler,—wavered between 
plans of continuing the struggle and of saving her¬ 
self. f Her senatorial co-conspirators endeavored to 
ease their own shoulders by unanimous testimony 
against herj She was legally amenable to Tiberius 


*“On the day on which the Senate led him out to execution the 
populace pulled him to pieces. * * * Nothing remained of him 

which the executioner could drag with his hook.”—Seneca, De Tran- 
quillitate , n, 9. 

t“Last of all, Tiberius having calumniated (?) her with desiring at 
one moment to betake herself to the statue of Augustus, at another 
to the armies, banished her to the island of Pandateria.”—Sueton. 
Tib. 53. Tacitus, as usual, copies or adds to patrician misstatements. 
He says: “Persons were provided by Tiberius, who should warn 
Agrippina and her son Nero to escape to the armies of Germany, 
at one time commanded by her husband, or in the most public man¬ 
ner to embrace the statue of the divine Augustus in the Forum and 
call on the people and Senate for aid! And these projects, spurned, 
were charged as if planned by them.” Tacitus, An. 4, 67. Tacitus 
connects this with events of A. D. 27. It has no appositeness 
thereto, and was probably displaced by himself or some earlier 
writer, for the sake of obscuring history. 

^Caligula—in response probably to incessant senatorial invective 
against Sejanus—“inveighed often against all senators, equally, as 
clients of Sejanus, and delatores , prosecutors of his mother and 
brothers, * * * defending the severe measures of Tiberius as 

necessary, since credence had to be given to such a multitude of ac¬ 
cusers.”—Sueton. Calig. 30. Caligula knew howto use sarcasm. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CvESAR. 


229 


as the adoptive father of her husband, and was by 
him banished to an island, where two years subse¬ 
quently, she died, on the anniversary of her victim's 
death.* 

Among the severe trials of Tiberius, in connection 
with this revolt, was the fate of Livilla, or Livia. 
"Junior , his daughter-in-law. Her husband Drusus, 
and subsequently to his death, her son, had been 
hoped for by the popular party as their future 
prince.f This made her an object of animosity to 
the patrician faction. During the rebellion her 
statues were thrown down and violent decrees 
enacted against her.J She was among the women 


*“Caesar added, that ‘ she died on the same day of the year on 
which Sejanus had been punished (?) two years previously, and that 
the fact deserved recollection.’ * * * It was decreed [by the 

Senate] that forever on the 18th of October, (the day when both had 
died) an offering should be made to Jupiter.”—Tacitus, An. 6, 25. 
The parenthetical remark in its present shape was no part of the 
decree. The additional remark of Tiberius that Agrippina had not 
perished by a public execution, is misrepresented by Tacitus as a 
boast. 

fWhen Drusus, her husband, died, the popular party must have 
endeavored (Tacitus, An. 4, 9) to make his funeral outvie the one 
previously gotten up by the patricians for Germanicus. 

+“At Rome, in the beginning of the year, A. D. 34, as of the dis¬ 
graceful doings (?) of Livia were but lately become known, and had 
not already [how?] been sufficiently punished, savage decrees were 
also enacted against her statues and memory.”—Tacitus. An. 6, 2. 
The circumstances here mentioned occurred probably in the latter 
part of 31, while the rebellion held sway. Its location in a. D. 32, 
may be one of those misplacements by which the patrician party en¬ 
deavored to obscure history, If the decrees were early in the year 
32, there must have been an effort of the conspirators, in their fright. 



230 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


violated. Circumstancial evidence renders it not 
improbable that she was also murdered by a repro¬ 
bate nephew or nephews.* When her violators 
were brought to justice, the senatorial faction called 
it punishment for adultery, f 

A conspiracy and state emergency such as we 


to divert indignation from themselves. The enactment of decrees 
against Livilla’s memory implies apparently that she was already 
dead, which corroborates the supposition that she had been murdered. 

^Agrippina had, when her husband died, three surviving sons, Nero, 
Drusus, and Caius or Caligula. The last mentioned resided at first 
with his great-grandmother, Livia, then with his grandmother, An¬ 
tonia, and then with his grand-uncle, Tiberius. The other two are 
represented by their aged relative, the emperor (Tacitus, An. 5, 3; 
6, 24), as addicted to vice. If the action of Tiberius already men¬ 
tioned (see p. 527), against such as had violated and murdered their 
nearest female relatives, were without intervention of courts, it must 
have been against some member, or members, of his family, subject, 
as such, to his personal jurisdiction. If so, there can be little doubt 
that the reference is to Nero or Drusus, or to both. Nero was ban¬ 
ished (Sueton, Tib. 54 ; compare Calig. 15) to the island of Pontia. 
Drusus ( Ibid.) was kept prisoner in the Capitol until his death. 


fin a. D. 34, Mamercus Scaurus, with whom Seneca (De Benefic. 
4, 31, 2, 3) disgusts his readers, and whom Tacitus calls “ distinguished 
by noble birth, and in pleading causes, but of shameful life,” was tried 
(Tac. An. 6, 29) for “adultery with Livia, and magical rites.” Ac¬ 
cording to Dio Cassius, 58, 24, the sole charge was “having committed 
adultery with Livia ; and many others were punished on her account. ” 
The nature of his offence may be judged from the following com¬ 
ment of Tiberius on an insulting and defiant drama by the culprit: 
11 1 will make him an Ajax” Dio Cass. 58, 24. Ajax is said to 
have violated Cassandra, the priestess of Minerva, Smith. Diet, of 
Biog. 1, p. 88, col. 1, and to have perished in consequence. Defiant 
language, Ibid. p. 87, col. 2, did not save him. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


231 


have mentioned would, to many a ruler, have sug¬ 
gested arbitrary measures. No such charge against 
Tiberius comes to us even from his enemies. Not a 
military execution is mentioned : no arbitrary ex¬ 
purgation of the Senate, such as Augustus executed 
in favor of the reactionary aristocracy. Tiberius 
seems to have proceeded patiently and persistently 
in collecting evidence and in laying it before the 
established tribunal, so that perpetrators of outrage 
and murder should receive their due reward. 

The senatorial faction fought stoutly, and more 
than three years were needed before Trio could be 
brought to justice, though he had committed some 
of the murders with his own hand. Even Scaurus 
escaped conviction for nearly the same length 
of time. 

§ iv. Social Results of the Rebellion. 

The civil policy of Rome recognized no public 
prosecutor whose duty it was to proceed against 
criminals. The popular part}' had no legislative bodv 
in behalf of justice. The law-making power was 
largely in the hands of the present criminals, that 
is, of the Senate, which moreover exercised, to 
some extent, judicial functions. Had Tiberius 
under these circumstances treated revolution as 
calling for extraordinary, even non-legalized action 
on his part,had he banished, even if he did not exe¬ 
cute, the more active criminals, public opinion 
would have sustained him, and the community 



232 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CvESAR. 


would have been spared many evils. He was scru¬ 
pulous, however, not to overstep his established 
authoritv, and the laws were allowed ordinary 
course.* That he did not seize the opportunity for 
reforming the government may have been due to 
his advanced age, or to promises enacted by his 
step-father, or to absence of the originality requisite 
for political reconstruction, though he was other¬ 
wise highly gifted with administrative ability. 

Every individual whose relatives had been mur¬ 
dered could bring action against the murderers. 
These murderers were politically and financially 
powerful. They brought or instigated counter¬ 
prosecutions to intimidate their opponents.! They 


# Tiberius “sent in to it [the Senate] not only the book [articles of 
accusation] placed in his hands by ‘prosecutors,* but also the evi¬ 
dence under torture superintended by Macro, so that nothing was 
left to them [the senators] save acquittal or condemnation.—Dio 
Cass. 58, 21, compare 24. Tacitus alludes to but one instance of 
this, which he places in the year 37. Three senators of rank were 
on trial. “Commentaries [by whom?] sent to the Senate said that 
Macro had presided at the examination of witnesses, and the torture 
of the slaves. Absence of any letters from the emperor against 
them created suspicion.”—Tacitus, An, 6, 47. In the extract from 
Dio the bracketed word “acquittal” must not be attributed to him, 
though necessary to a fair understanding of the matter. In both of 
these extracts the accusers must have been others than Tiberius. He 
appears merely as the presiding officer of the Senate, through whom 
charges and evidence were handed in. Slave evidence in such cases 
was only valid if taken under torture. Macro’s presence at the ex¬ 
amination may have been needed to prevent fraud or to mitigate in¬ 
humanity. 

tOne man gave as a reason for bringing a prosecution, Tacitus, 
An. 0 , 18, that he wished to parry his brother’s danger. “Under 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


233 


could, no doubt, hire Delatores , prosecutors on 
shares, who for a price paid, and in hope of half the 
defendant’s property, would undertake the invention 
of crime and evidence. Seneca depicts the state of 
matters,* and elsewhere places in strong contrast 
the earlier years of Tiberius.f 

The proceedings against Gallio illustrate the con¬ 
dition of things. He had moved in the Senate a 
reward for the pretorian soldiers because of their fi- 


Tiberius the accusers of others acquired much wealth from their 
property and from the senatorial treasury, and obtained certain 
honors.”—Dio Cass. 58, 14. 

*“Under Tiberius Caesar there was frequens et pane publica , a 
common and almost epidemic insanity for accusation, which, worse 
than any civil war, brought destruction to Roman citizens. The ut¬ 
terance of the drunken, the simplicitas , light-heartedness of the 
jesting, were seized upon. Nothing was safe.”—Seneca, De Benefic. 
3, 26, 1. 

tSeneca tells Nero on his accession, “No man was ever so dear to 
another as you to the whole Roman people. * * * No one now 

mentions the divine Augustus or the earlier years of Tiberius Caesar. ” 
—De dementia 1, 1, 5, 6. 

This testimony comes from one who had no disposition to over¬ 
praise Tiberius. The guarded benevolence of the latter did not suit 
Seneca’s views of conferring favors. (Seneca, De Benefic, 2, 7, 8.) 
That writer elsewhere, De Benefic. 5, 25, 2, attributes to Tiberius a 
lack of sociability caused by pride, which was more probably due to 
practical reasons. Seneca moved in aristocratic society, and could 
not wholly escape its influence. He tells us, Epist. 83, 13, 14, that 
•Cossus, whom Tiberius on quitting Rome had left in charge of the 
city, was a thoughtful, discreet man, virum gravem , moderation , es¬ 
pecially trusted above other ministers by Tiberius with private 
matters, and that he never divulged a public or private secret. Yet 
in connection with this, Seneca tells us that he was an habitual 
drunkard ; a fiction, probably, of the aristocracy. 



234 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CvESAR. 


delity against the rebellion. Tiberius, who saw 
that the motion was a well-intentioned, even if 
foolish mistake, wrote that the soldiers were under 
orders of their commander ( Ini'percitoris , emperor) 
and must look to him, not to the Senate, for reward. 
The Senate, eager to indulge its feeling against 
Gallio, banished him. Tiberius—against whom the 
alleged fault had been committed—recalled him and 
gave him a guard for his protection.* 

The charges against Cotta Messalinus are another 
illustration of the prevailing tendency.! Their tenor 
implies that they came from the dominant senatorial 
laction. Tiberius replied, that neither language 
maliciously perverted, nor the freedom of convivial 
conversation, ought to be made a ground of accusa¬ 
tion. He prefixed to this a statement that it was a 
torment to know, “what I ought to write you, how I 
shall phrase it, and what I had better omit,” and 
added that his torments were daily ones.J 


-Tacitus. An. 6. 3 ; Dio Cass. 58, 18. 

tOnly three charges are adduced by Tacitus: (1) that Cotta had 
spoken of Caligula’s manhood as yet untried (the Latin admits an 
indecent perversion) ; (2) that a birthday feast for Augusta, mother 
of Tiberius, had by him been called a funeral entertainment; and 
(3) that in a pecuniary suit with Lepidus and Arruntius, he had 
said, “The Senate will protect them, my little Tiberius me.”—Tac¬ 
itus, An. 6, 5. For these charges, with which Tacitus seems to 
spmpathize, the senatorial faction had, according to that writer, been 
on the watch. 

^Tiberius, as “primate” of the Senate, had to give assent before a 
prosecution could be legally commenced. To refuse this for all 
prosecutions which he disapproved, would practically have made him 
the exclusive judge of such cases,—an arbitrary power the assump- 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CyESAR. 


235 


He felt at times that the earth needed a renovation 
as with lire.* Conscientious anxiety and inability 
to provide a safeguard against such evils after his 
death, made him in some moment of perplexity treat 
Priam as relatively happy in his freedom from kin¬ 
dred anxiety.f Financial chaos was by an act of 
the patricians superadded to other troubles which he 
needed to remedy.]; yet he labored on, and the last 
moments of his earthly existence were apparently 
devoted to thoughtful provision for the future.§ 


tion of which (see Note C, foot-note io) he probably deemed inap¬ 
propriate. On the other hand, assent yielded might mean pecuniary 
ruin, or death, to an innocent man. Even an unguarded word, ad¬ 
dressed to the Senate, might be perverted to some one’s ruin. The 
anxiety and suffering of Tiberius in such a position is by Tacitus; 
An. 6, 6, attributed to his guilty conscience,—a palpable and gross 
misrepresentation, though frequently accepted as truthful, even at 
the present day. 

*„He is said to have often repeated this old line of Greek poetry: 
'■When 1 am dead, let the earth blaze' ”—Dio Cass. 58, 23. Com¬ 
pare Seneca’s views in note 50, on p. 57. The line was probably 
well known, for Cicero, De Finibus, 3, 19, treats it as familiar, 
Seneca, De dementia, 2, 2, 2, quotes it, and Suetonius, Nero, 38, 
mentions its citation in Nero’s presence. 

+Dio Cassius, 58, 23. 

♦The Senate had enacted, Tacitus, An. 6, 17, that by every man, 
two thirds of his moneys at interest should be placed on lands in 
Italy. Patricians were the chief land-owners, and the object there¬ 
fore must have been to favor themselves. The enactment neces¬ 
sitated a simultaneous calling in of all loans. This threatened 
widespread financial ruin, which Tiberius parried (see note 58) by 
lending a large amount without interest. 

§“Seneca writes : ‘That finding himself dying, he took his signet 



236 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


After the death of Tiberius many of the patrician 
faction who had prosecuted others endeavored to 
lay their own doings on his shoulders. Caligula 
became indignant at the attempted falsification, and 
gave it a public rebuke.* * 

In the foregoing sketch Tiberius has been some¬ 
times called by the accustomed title of emperor, as 
a means of avoiding the too frequent repetition of his 
name. This title was, however, repugnant to him. 
The term “primate” would, in some respects, be 


ring off his finger, and held it awhile, as if he would deliver it to 
somebody; but put it again upon his finger, and lay for some time, 
with his left hand clinched, and without stirring ; when suddenly 
summoning his attendants, and no one answering the call, he rose ; 
but his strength failing him, he fell down at a short distance from his 
bed.’ ”—Sueton, Tib. 73, Bohn’s trans. 

*Caligula on his accession burned (possibly by advice of Tiberius) 
the records of testimony against his mother, Dio Cass. 59, 6; Sue¬ 
ton. Calig. 30 The patrician faction may have deemed it a permission 
to falsify. They complained bitterly on finding that other records 
were not included. Two years after the death of Tiberius, Caligula 
“entering the Senate chamber, bestowed much praise on him and 
blame upon the Senate and people (?) for unjust detraction of him 
(compare his words quoted on p. 208). * * * Thereupgn, enu¬ 

merating each one of those who had been destroyed, he rendered 
manifest, as it seemed, that to most of them the sen ators were 
the cause of destruction. Of some they were the accusers; against 
others they were the witnesses, and on all of them they had passed 
sentence. These records he caused to be read by freedmen from the 
very documents which he formerly said had been burnt. He added, 
that * * * you, having puffed up and spoiled Sejanus, put him 

to death. * * * Saying these things and recapitulating the 

senatorial charges of unbelief against sundry persons, he ordered 
them to be engraved on a brazen tablet, and hurried from the Senate 
chamber.”—Dio Cass. 59, 16. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


237 


better. There is, however, no title at the present 
day which corresponds exactly to his official po¬ 
sition. The appended extract on his personal ap¬ 
pearance will not be without interest for some 
readers.* 

§ v. Tacitus falsifies History. 

The Memoirs written by Tiberius have unfortun¬ 
ately perished, unless they lie unnoticed in some li¬ 
brary. Our chief resources for a knowledge of 
his reign are three writers, Tacitus, Suetonius, and 
Dio Cassius. 

The last mentioned wrote nearly two centuries 
after the death of Tiberius. He exercised no criti¬ 
cal judgement,! yet he has in many instances fur¬ 
nished valuable information. Though a senator, he 
quotes anti-patrician facts and sometimes what 
seems anti-patrician argument ;J but his patrician 

*“If we may trust the testimony of a noble sitting statue, discov¬ 
ered iu modern times at Piperno, the ancient Privernum, near Ter- 
racina, and now lodged in the gallery of the Vatican, which has been 
pronounced to be a genuine representation of Tiberius, we must be¬ 
lieve that both in face and figure he was eminently handsome, his 
body and limbs developed in the most admirable proportions, and his 
countenance regular, animated, and expressive.”—Merivale, Hist, of 
the Romans, 4, pp. 170, 171. 

+“My purpose is * * * to write connectedly whatever I find 

stated * * * without being inquisitive, and without suggesting 

to others whether an act were just or unjust, nor whether the narra¬ 
tive concerning it be false or true.”—Dio Cass. 54, 15. 

J“Then another laughable incident took place. The Senate voted 
that he (Tiberius) should select as many of themselves as he wished, 
and should have twenty of this number, chosen by lot, as guards, 
armed with swords, whenever he should enter the Senate chamber. 



238 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS C^FSAR. 


and anti-patrician accounts are too often mixed in 
utter confusion. 

Suetonius wrote without chronological arrange¬ 
ment, and recorded personal anecdotes rather than 
a connected history. He was often misled by pa¬ 
trician accounts,* yet not intentionally, for he nar¬ 
rates at times what must have been very unaccept¬ 
able to the aristocracy. His easy credence of inde¬ 
cent stories is objectionable. 

Tacitus is our most copious source for the history 
of Tiberius. His arrangement is expressed by the 
title Annals , each year being treated by itself. This 
aids the reader in studying the sequence of events. 
He has, however, two main faults. He copies the 
grossest patrician misrepresentations, not merely in 
ignorance, but with a knowledge of their untruth. 
Secondly, he superadds his own discoloration and 
falsification. A long article, or a work perhaps, 
would be requisite to treat the subject fully. A few 
items may suffice to point out his dishonesty. 

The unwillingness of Tiberius to call Augustus 


For—inasmuch as the outside was guarded by soldiers, and none but 
senators were permitted to enter—they thereby recognized that the 
guard was given him solely against themselves as his enemies.” 
—Dio Cass. 58, 17. This was in a. d. 32, shortly after the rebel¬ 
lion. The connection implies that, instead of coming from a writer 
on the popular side, it was an expression of chagrin by some patri¬ 
cian. 

*A striking instance of this is that he attributes, Sueton. Tib. 61, 
not merely the murder of Sejanus and others, but the enactment 
against mourning . 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CyESAR. 


239 


god was a matter of notoriety. Tacitus, a mem¬ 
ber in early life, of the popular party, while friends 
and acquaintances of Tiberius were yet living, can¬ 
not have been ignorant of the fact. Yet, writing in 
the days of Trajan, when it was less commonly 
known, he treats his reader to the precious fiction 
below, fand on various occasions puts into the mouth 
of Tiberius the expression Divine Augustus.\ 

Again: Tacitus convicts himself of knowing, 
that Tiberius, so far from being at enmity with Se- 
janus, or having murdered him, would not even 
after his death believe the charges against him. 


tClaudia Pulchra, a cousin and partisan of Agrippina, and there¬ 
fore patrician in politics, was prosecuted by Domitius Afer, the 
greatest pleader whom Quintilian, Instit. 12, 11, 3, had ever heard. 
For the real charges against her Tacitus probably substitutes as in 
some other cases fictions, and then indulges in the following: “Agrip¬ 
pina, ever vehement, and then in a flame on account of the perilous 
situation of her kinswoman, flew to Tiberius, and by chance found 
him sacrificing to the imperor his father. When, availing herself of 
the circumstance to upbraid him, she told him ‘that it was inconsist¬ 
ent in him to offer victims to the deified Augustus and persecute his 
children: his divine spirit was not transfused into dumb statues: the 
genuine images of Augustus were the living descendants from his ce¬ 
lestial blood: she herself was one; one sensible of impending danger, 
and now in the mournful state of a suppliant. In vain was Pulchra 
set up as the object of attack; when the only cause of her overthrow 
was her affection for Agrippina foolishly carried even to adoration.’ ” 
—Tacitus, An. 4, 52, Bohn’s trans. 

JTacitus, An. 1. 11; 2, 38; 3, 54, 56. The same expression is, in 
the Annals, 3, 34, put into the mouth of Drusus, son of Tiberius. 
The statement of Tacitus (An. 4, 57) that Tiberius visited Cam¬ 
pania for the professed purpose “of dedicating the temple to Jupiter 
at Capua and one to Augustus at Nola,” is probably a mere falsehood. 



240 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


Yet, in the face of this, he fabricates speeches, and 
puts them into the mouth of Tiberius and others*- 
implying that Sejanus was by Tiberius deemed, and 
had been treated as his enemy.* By comparing, in 

*Under the year 35, Tacitus says, that “although three years had 
elapsed since the death of Sejanus, yet time, prayers, and satiety, 
which are wont to mollify others, did not so mollify Tiberius, but 
that he punished uncertain or obsolete actions as if weighty and re¬ 
cent. Under fear of this Fulcinius Trio [consul when Sejanus was- 
murdered, and one of the chief plotters against him and Tiberius], 
not enduring the accusers who were pressing him hard, put together, 
in his ‘last tablets,’ many savage accusations against Macro and 
the chief freedmen of Coesar ; objecting to Caesar himself a mind 
weakened by age, and treating his absence as exile. Which 
tablets, concealed by the heirs, Tiberius ordered to be recited, be¬ 
cause ostentatious of his enduring liberty of speech in others and in¬ 
different to his own infamy, or because having been long ignor¬ 
ant as TO the crimes of Sejanus, he preferred eventually, that 
in any manner whatever, the statements [which brought them to- 
light?] should be made commonly known.”—Tacitus, An. 6, 38. 

The concluding reason shows Tacitus to have been aware, that,, 
for three or four years after the death of Sejanus, any crimes attrib¬ 
uted to that individual had remained discredited by Tiberius. The 
remarks therefore, which Tacitus at an earlier date puts into the 
mouth of Tiberius and others, as also his own insinuations, An. 5, 6, 
7 ; 6, 3, 8, 14, 19, 23, 25, 30, implying hostility of the emperor to 
Sejanus, were by Tacitus himself known to be fictions for the fur¬ 
therance of falsehood. The beginning of the foregoing extract ad¬ 
mits no plausible interpretation save on the supposition that Tacitus, 
knew Trio to have been prosecuted with the approval of Ti¬ 
berius, FOR COMPLICITY IN THE MURDER OF SEJANUS AND HIS 
friends. The unscrupulous patricianism of Tacitus is evinced by 
his treating an atrocious, wholesale murder as having become obso¬ 
lete in three years. The light which the foregoing throws on the 
untruthfulness of Tacitus is not affected by the obvious absurdity of 
supposing that “tablets” which, according to both himself and Dio 
Cassius, were silent about Sejanus, should have been recited in order 
to throw odium on him. 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CvESAR. 


241 


a single instance, the account of Tactitus with that 
of Dio Cassius, a more definite opinion can be at¬ 
tained as to the manner in which the former adds to 
his authorities.* 

The foregoing are but individual instances of mis¬ 
representation. Its frequency and extent may be 
inferred from the fact that a reader might peruse 
Tactitus, and that readers generally, if not univer¬ 
sally, have perused him, without consciousness of 
attempted patrician rebellions in A. d. 14 and 19, 
and without knowledge that such a rebellion had 
broken ferociously out in a.d* 31. What would be 
thought concerning a modern historian of Germany 


*Dio Cassius copies a patrician authority in which the term Re¬ 
public has been obviously substituted for Senate ,—the two ideas 
being identical in some patrician minds,—and in which the exile of 
Gallio is incorrectly attributed to Tiberius. 

Tiberius banished Junius Gallio, “who had proposed, that a seat 
in the theatre among the knights should be given to soldiers after 
serving their time,—charging that he was apparently inciting them 
to favor the Republic (the Senate) rather than himself.”—Dio Cass. 

58, 18. 

“Junius Gallio, who had proposed ‘that the pretorian soldiers, 
having fulfilled their term of service, should thence acquire the priv¬ 
ilege of sitting in the fourteen rows of the threatre allotted to the 
Roman knights,’ he rebuked vehemently, and, as if present, de¬ 
manded ‘what business he had with the soldiers, whose duty bound 
them to observe only the orders of the emperor ( Imperatoris , com¬ 
mander), and from the emperor alone to recieve their rewards. Had 
he forsooth discovered what had escaped the sagacity of the divine 
Augustus? Or was it not rather a method invented by a sat¬ 
ellite of Sejanus, to raise sedition and discord? an artifice by 
which, under pretence of conferring honor, he might stimulate the sim¬ 
ple minds of the soldiers to break through the established regulations 
of the service.”—Tacitus, An. 6, .3, Bohn’s trans. altered. 



242 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


in 1848 , or of the United States in 1860 — 1865 , who 
should persistently ignore, in the former country, a 
popular uprising, or, in the latter, an effort of the 
slaveholders to dismember the government. His 
effort would, because of present facilities for preser¬ 
ving information, be abortive, but not. certainty, 
more untruthful in object, than that of Tactitus. 
The portion of his Annals which mentions the exe¬ 
cution of Sejanas is, indeed, lost, but his extant 
treatment of the attendant circumstances leaves no 
doubt of elaborated imposition. 

The dealing of Tacitus with Livilla and Agrippina 
may illustrate his treatment of the conspiracy. Li¬ 
villa was connected with the popular party and was 
in friendship with Tiberius. Agrippina was prom¬ 
inent in patrician movements and at enmity with 
him. The rebellious patricians who murdered the 
former, endeavored, in her case as in that of Seja- 
nus, to mitigate their own crimes by blackening the 
character of their victim.* Tacitus, to throw his 
readers off their guard, states under the year 23 , 
when no motive for falsification appears, that she 
Avas seduced by Sejanus whom she aided to poison 
her husband, but that nothing was known of it until 
eight years later.f Eight years later, lest the reader 


*The earliest charge by the conspirators against Livilla was prob¬ 
ably one preserved by Pliny, Nat. Hist. 29, 8, 5, of improper inti¬ 
macy, not with Sejanus, but with Eudemus, her physician. 

tWe are told by Tacitus, An. 4, 3, Sejanus “enticed her by adul¬ 
tery and * * * impelled her to the murder of her husband 
. and again (4, 8), “Sejanus * * * chose a poison which, creeping 
only by degrees into the system, should resemble an accidental dis- 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


243 


might notice that the charge originated with politi- 


ease. It was given to Drusus (her husband) by Lygdus the eunuch, 
as became known eight years afterwards and again (3, n), “The 
method of effecting this crime, that is, the sole evidence of its exist¬ 
ence, divulged eight years afterwards by Apicata, wife of Sejanus, 
was patefactus substantiated by putting Eudemus (the physician of 
Livilla) and Lygdus to the torture.” The extant works of Tacitus 
do not contain this alleged revelation by Apicata, but it has been 
transmitted us by Dio Cassius, 58, 11 : “Apicata * * * having 

learned that the children were dead, and having seen their bodies on 
the malefactors’ stairs, went away and having written in a book con¬ 
cerning the death of Drusus many things against his wife Livilla,— 
on whose account she had quarrelled with her husband'- so as no 
longer to live with him,—she sent it to Tiberius, and then committed 
suicide. ” 

According to this story, Apicata—at variance with her husband 
and conscious of his crime—refrained during eight years from men¬ 
tioning it. Then, when he had been murdered, she looked at the 
lifeless forms of her children, and—after viewing the innocent little 
daughter who had been outraged and strangled—wrote to Tiberius, 
not to complain of the murderers, but to palliate their crimes by 
narrating events eight years old. If the hard-pushed conspirators 
professed during the lifetime of Tiberius any information from 
Apicata, we may be sure that it did not, until after his death, as¬ 
sume the form of a letter to himself. If they had tortured to death 
Eudemus and Lygdus, they would deem it safe to fabricate evidence 
in their name. 

Tacitus diverts scrutiny from his narrative by mixing with it ex¬ 
traneous matters, and endeavors to inspire credence by putting it 
forward as a defence of Tiberius against the charge of poisoning his 
son, even while stating that no writer had ever made such a charge. 
It winds up as follows : “Nor has any writer appeared so hostile as to 
charge it upon Tiberius ; though in other instances they heve sedu¬ 
lously collected and aggravated every action of his. My purpose in 
relating and refuting this rumor was, under so glaring an example, 
to destroy the credit of groundless hearsays, and to request of those 
into whose hands my present undertaking shall come, that they would 
not prefer vague and improbable rumors, unscrupulously credited, to 



244 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 

> 4 

cal enemies who had murdered her, he treats it as r 
since a long time, well known.* 

In the case of Agrippina, Tacitus quotes some 
charges which, as narrated in his pages, do not 
bring to light, and scarcely even suggest, any polit¬ 
ical criminality.f To these he adds an apersion of 
her private character, fabricated probably by him¬ 
self, with the object of refuting it and of thus placing 
her in the light of a vindicated women. J The charge 
of prompting conspiracy and instigating murder is 
wholly overlooked. 

Whenever Tacitus becomes pious, or undertakes 
to philosophize or moralize, to expatiate on jurispru¬ 
dence or antiquities, or to address our sympathies, 
the reader should be doubly watchful against effort 
to conceal some patrician roguery or else some pa¬ 
trician defeat. Pious indignation against Tiberius 
for not consulting the Sibyline Oracles, is but a 


the narrations of truth unadulterated with romance.”—Tacitus, An. 
4, ii, Bohn’s trans. altered. Should any one wish model impudence 
in a party renegade, let him read Tacitus. 

*Tacitus, An. 6,-2, 

+Tacitus, An. 4, 67, 

^Tacitus, An. 6, 25, quotes Tiberius, as accusing Agrippina of 
adultery with Asinius Gallus. Had he attributed to him, a charge 
against her of adultery with the man in the moon, the certainty 
could hardly be greater of his knowing that no such utterance had 
proceeded from Tiberius or from any contemporary source. Gallus, 
a friend of Tiberius, was a leader of the popular party. As such 
his life (see note 68) was in danger from the animosity of Agrippina’s 
adherents. The absurd quotation cannot have been invented before 
the time of Tacitus, and not improbably originated with himself 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


245 


means to divert attention from the position of react¬ 
ionaries afraid of their former hobby.* Egyptian 
antiquities are a screen to plottings of rebellion by 
Germanicus in Egypt. \ An account of usury legis¬ 
lation throws somewhat into the shade a senatorial 
enactment whose purpose was to make the borrow¬ 
ing of money easy for senators and difficult for 
others.J Meditations on Astrology and Fate sug¬ 
gest—what Tacitus shrunk probably from asserting 
—that Drusus, the worthless son of Germanicus, 
suffered, not for his crimes, but owing to blind fate, 
or because the gods take no interest in man.§ 
With the same object, in the sections immediately 
consequent on the foregoing, Tacitus appeals to sym¬ 
pathy in behalf of Drusus,because those in charge of 
him “took note of his countenance, groans, and se¬ 
cret repinings,” which means—if we may judge 
from information in the same paragraph—that they 
had to bear with the violence and imprecations of 
their prisoner. Tacitus evidently wishes his readers 
to infer, what he has been guarded enough to avoid 
affirming, that Drusus died of starvation.|| 


*See Ch. vii. note 103. 

+Cp. pp. 186, 187, with Tac. An. 2, 60, 61. 

JSee note 112. 

§Tac. An. 6, 21, 22. 

(Tacitus, An. 6, 23, 24. The charge against Drusus,—attributed 
in this last section to Tiberius, of “a disposition exitiabilem in suos 
destructive towards his own relatives,” claims careful consideration 
as to whether it means, that he had murdered his aunt, Livilla. 
Compare note ioo. A reader unfamiliar with Roman history should 


246 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


The disposition of Tacitus to veil or suppress 
mention of crime committed, or ridicule incurred, 
by the patrician party is, naturally enough, conjoined 
to misrepresentation of such popular leaders as were 
most hated by patricians. No peculiarity of his 
work is more obvious or offensive than this. If Ti¬ 
berius rejects honor, the historian, instead of appre¬ 
ciating the fact, subjoins a remark to pervert the 
reader’s understanding of it.* If Gallus and Gallio 
are each furnished with a military guard, this is 
represented, not in its true light as a friendly effort 
to protect them, but as a device of Tiberius for their 
annoyance.f A glaring instance of the same ten- 


guard against confusing this Drusus with Livilla’s husband, the son 
of Tiberius. 

^“Neither however would he, on accont of these acts accept the 
name of ‘Father of his Country,’ a title offered him before ; nay, h& 
sharply rebuked such as said, ‘His divine occupations,’ and called 
him ‘Lord.’ Hence it was difficult and dangerous to speak 
under a prince who dreaded liberty and abhorred flattery.”—Tacitus- 
An. 2, 87, Bohn’s trans. The dread of liberty is flatly contradicted 
by statements (forced out of Tacitus?) in the Annals, 4, 6, quoted 
in note 5. 

+The seizure of Gallus has been mentioned in note 68. The 
guard and encouragement given him by Tiberius were subsequently 
misrepresented by the patrician party, Dio Cass. 08, 3, as contri¬ 
vances for his annoyance, that his life and uneasiness might be pro¬ 
longed instead of ended by suicide. The year 30 is lost from the 
Annals of Tacitus, and with it is lost any account of Gallus being 
seized. But the spirit of the lost narrative can be safely judged 
from the present portion which narrates the death of Gallus. “The 
death of Asinius Gallus became generally known. That he perished 
through famine, was undoubted ; but whether of his own accord or 
by constraint, was held uncertain. The emperor was consulted* 



SKETCH OF TIBERIUS CAESAR. 


247 


dency occurs in his dealing with Domitian, The 
latter, perhaps to end needless war in Britain, had 
recalled Agricola. When, at a later date, Agri¬ 
cola was ill, Domitian made kindly inquiries concer¬ 
ning him, and, on the last day, sent repeatedly to 
inform himself. The contemptible comments of 
Tacitus are given below. * He had himself received 
kindness from Domitian and was nevertheless 
willing to please his new associates, the aristocracy, 
by attributing to crime in Domitian what was evi- 
dently a courtesy, if not an office of friendship. Yet 
this is the man who tells his readers their need of 
aid to understand history, and who puts himself for¬ 
ward as its interpreter.! 


‘whether he would suffer (?) him to be buried,’ when he blushed not 
to grant it as a favor.”—Tacitus, An. 6, 23, Bohn’s trans. 

The guard for Gallio (compare note 68) is thus noticed: “As it 
was alleged that he would experience no hardship from an exile at 
Lesbos, a celebrated and charming island, which he had selected, he 
was hauled back to Rome, and kept under guard in the house of a 
magistrate ”—Tacitus, An. 6, 3, Bohn’s trans. 

^“Commiseration was aggravated by a prevailing report that he 
(Agricola).was taken off by poison, I cannot venture to affirm any¬ 
thing certain of this matter ; yet, during the whole course of his 
illness, the principal of the imperial freedmen and the most confi¬ 
dential of the physicians was sent much more frequently than was 
customary with a court whose visits were chiefly paid by messages ; 
whether that was done out of real solicitude, or for the purposes of 
state inquisition, on the day of his dicease it is certain that accounts 
of his approaching dissolution were every instant transmitted to the 
emperor by couriers stationed for the purpose ; and no one believed 
that the information, which so much pains was taken to accelerate, 
could be received with regret.”—Tacitus, Agric. 43, Bohn’s trans. 

+“It was pertinent to search out and narrate these things, since 



248 


SKETCH OF TIBERIUS C^SAR. 


In the revival of learning an overestimate of long- 
neglected heathen authors was natural. That Tac¬ 
itus should, however, until the present day, have 
retained reputation as a reliable historian, is no 
credit to modern research. 


few by their own wisdom can discern honorable things from the more 
degrading, useful things from injurious. The majority are taught by 
the fortunes of others. ’’—Tacitus, An. 4, 33. 
























PONTIUS PILATE. 

From “Christ before Pilate.' 1 


The original by M. de Munkacsy. 







SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


The first name of Pontius Pilate is unknown. It 
indicates that he was connected by descent or adop¬ 
tion with the gens Pontii—prominent first in Roman 
history in the person of C. Pontius Telesinus, the 
great Samnite General.* The family name Pilatus 


*Pontius Pilate, if indeed, a descendant of this great man, had 
whereof to boast in speaking of his “Roman and Spanish” blood. 

The three Samnite wars lasted, with brief intervals more than hal 
a century (B. c. 343-290). The Latin allies, becoming unruly, were 
reduced to obedience by a war which broke up the League and sub¬ 
jected all Latium to Roman law. Two incidents of the Latin war 
illustrate the Spartan-like sternness of the Romans of this period B. 
C. 339. All soldiers were forbidden to leave the camp on pain of 
death; but Titus Manlius the consul’s son, vexed by the challenge of 
a Latin warrior, went out and killed him, and returning in triumph, 
laid the spoils at his father’s feet. The consul ordered his guards to 
behead the young man before his tent in file presence of all the 
army. 

The second Samnite war lasted B. c. 326-304, 22 years. The 
Romans suffered a disgraceful defeat at the Caudine Forks, where 
the remnant of their army which survived had to “pass under the 
yoke,” in token of submission. A treaty of peace was made ; but 
the Roman Senate refused to be bound by it, and sent the two con¬ 
suls and two tribunes who had signed it, bound in chains to suffer 
the vengeance of the Samnites. Pontius the Samnite general gener- 




250 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


has received two explanations: one meaning armed 
with a javelin and the other, as contracted from 
pileatus . 

The pileatus or cap was the badge of manumitted 
slaves ; and this renders it probable that, Pilate was 
a lihertus , or the descendent of one. 

Nothing is known of his early history, however* 
positively ; but a German legend relates that he was 
the natural son of Tyrus, King ofMayence. It re¬ 
lates also that Pilate was sent by Tyrus as a hostage 
to Rome, where he was afterward guilty of murder, 
and being banished to Pontus rose into notice by 
subduing the barbarous tribes there, receiving in 
consequence the name of Pontius, and was sent to 
Judea. It has been thought that the twenty-second 


ously released them. After many reverses and a few victories, the 
Romans were at length acknowledged as masters of Italy. 

The Samnites, however, made use of the six years’ interval of 
peace, to enlist all the Italian nations in a new league against Rome* 
and in 298 B. c. the third Samnite war broke out. Etruscans, Um¬ 
brians and Gauls, on the north were allied with Lucanians, Apulians* 
Greeks and Samnites on the south. 

In a great battle at Sentinum, the Gauls and Samnites were de¬ 
feated b. c. 295 and 25,000 men were slain. 

Pontius, the Samnite general, still defended his country by his 
brilliant genius ; but at length the Romans gained a victory, in which 
he was made a prisoner and compelled to walk the street* of Rome 
loaded with chains to adorn the triumph of the consul. When the 
procession reached the foot of the Capitoline Hill, he was led aside 
and beheaded in the Mamertine Prison. That the noble Pontius 
suffered this fate, i§ one of the greatest blots upon the honor of 
Rome. 

Samnium was completely subjected, and a Roman colony of 20,000 
guarded its territory. 



SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


251 


legion, which was in Palestine at the time of the 
destruction of Jerusalem and was afterwards stationed 
at Mayence may have been in this case the bearer 
of this tradition.* 

Pontius Pilate was the sixth Roman procurator of 
Judea, and under him our Lord worked, suffered 
and died, as we learn, not only from the obvious 
Scripture allusions, but from Tactitus. A procurator 
was generally a Roman knight, appointed to act 
under a governor of a province as collector of the 
revenue and judge in cases connected with it. 

Strictly speaking, procurators of Caesar were only 
required in the imperial provinces ; that is, in those 
which, according to the constitution of Augustus, 
were reserved tor the especial administration of the 
emperor, without the intervention of the Senate and 
people, and governed by his legate. In the senato- 


*There is an interesting fact connected with this German legend 
curiously enough brought out in the trial of Jesus before Pilate. 

When the Jews brought forward the charge of bastardy against Jesus 
Pilate seems to have become very much interested and manifests that 
interest in the charge emphatically by insisting on probing it to the 
bottom. The reader will be struck forcibly by reading carefully the 
pains expended by Pilate on this seemingly unimportant charge and 
the manner in which he insisted upon proof of what he there treats 
as false, but in which he could have felt no interest unless based on 
wbat was hidden to all but himself. 

That a sympathetic chord was touched in his memory cannot fail 
of being suepected by any one who will study in this connection his 
treatment of the charge against Jesus on this point. 

Even if this legend be true it in no way effects the life or charac¬ 
ter of Pilate as he well knew, yet being true would prompt to just 
such a feeling as seems to have wrought on him in the examination 
so closely made of this charge (see note on same in Acts, p. 79. 



252 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 

rial provinces, governed by proconsuls, the corres¬ 
ponding duties were discharged by quaestors. Yet, 
it appears, that sometimes procurators were appoin¬ 
ted in these provinces also to collect certain dues of 
th ejiscus (the emperor’s special revenue) as distin¬ 
guished from those of the cerarium (the revenue 
administered by the Senate.) Sometimes in a small 
territory, especially in one 'contiguous to a larger 
province, and dependent upon it, the procurator was 
head of the administration and had military and 
judicial authority, though he was responsible to the 
governor of the neighboring .province. Thus, Judea 
was attached to Syria upon the deposition of Arche- 
laus, A. D. 6. and a procurator appointed to govern 
it, with Caesarea foi^- its capital. ; Already, during a 
temporary absence of Archelaus, it had been in 
charge of the procurator Sabiqus ; then, after that 
ethnarch’s banishment’ came jCoponius ; the third 
procurator was M. Ambivus : the fourth Annius Ru¬ 
fus ; the filth, Valerius Gratus ; and the sixth, Ponti¬ 
us Pilatus, who was appointed A. D. 25 — 26 , in the 
twelfth year of Tiberius. One of his first acts was to 
remove the headquarters of the army from Csesarea 
to Jerusalem. The soldiers, of course, took with 
them their standards bearing the image of the em¬ 
peror. into the holy city. No previous governor 
had ventured on such an outrage. Pilate had been 
obliged to send them in the night, and there were 
no bounds to the rage of the people, in discovering 
what had been thus done. They poured down in 
crowds upon Caesarea, where the procurator was 
residing, and besought him to remove the images. 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


253 


After five days of discussion he gave the signal to 
some concealed soldiers to surround the petitioners 
and put them to death, unless they ceased to trouble 
him ; but this only strengthened their determination, 
and they declared themselves ready rather to die 
than forego their resistance to an idolatrous innova¬ 
tion. 

Pilate then yielded, and the standards were then, 
by his orders, brought down to Caesarea. On two 
other occasions he nearly drove the Jews to insur¬ 
rection ; the first, when in spite of this warning 
about the images, he hung up in his palace at Jeru¬ 
salem some gilt shields inscribed with the names of 
deities, which were only removed by an order from 
Tiberius; the second, when he appropriated the 
revenue arising from the redemption of vows to the 
construction of an aqueduct. This order led to a 
riot, which he suppressed by sending among the 
crowd soldiers, with concealed daggers, who mas¬ 
sacred a great number, not only rioters, but of cas¬ 
ual spectators. To these specimens of his adminis¬ 
tration, which rest on the testimony of profane 
authors, we must add the slaughter of certain Gali¬ 
leans, which was told to our Lord as a piece of news 
and on which he founded some remarks on the 
connection between sin and calamity. It must have 
occurred at some feast at Jerusalem in the outer 
court of the Temple, since the blood of the worship¬ 
ers was mingled with their sacrifices ; but the silence 
of Josephus about it seems to show that riots and 
massacres, on such occasions, were so frequent 
that it was needless to recount them at all. 


254 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


It was the custom of the procurators to reside at 
Jerusalem during the great feasts, to preserve order 
and, accordingly, at the time of our Lord’s last 
passover, Pilate was occupying his official residence 
in Herod’s palace ; and to the gates of this palace, 
therefore, Jesus, condemned on the charge of blas¬ 
phemy, was brought early in the morning by the 
chief priests and officers of the Sanhedrin, who were 
unable to enter the residence of a Gentile, lest they 
should be defiled and unfit to eat the passover. Pi¬ 
late, therefore, came out to learn their purpose and 
demanded the nature of the charge. At first they 
seem to have expected that he would carry out their 
wishes without further inquiry; and, therefore, 
merely described our Lord as a disturber of the 
peace ; but as a Roman procurator had too much 
respect for justice, or at least understood his business 
too well to consent to such a condemnation, and as 
they knew he would not enter into theological 
questions any more than Gallio did on a somewhat 
similar occasion, they were obliged to devise a new 
charge, and, therefore, interpreted our Lord’s claims 
in a political sense, accusing him of assuming the 
royal title, perverting the nation, and forbidding the 
paying of tribute to Rome. 

It is plain, that from this moment Pilate was dis¬ 
tracted between the two conflicting feelings : a fear 
of offending the Jews, who had already grounds of 
accusation against him, which would be strength¬ 
ened by any show of lukewarmness in punishing an 
offense against the imperial government, and a con¬ 
scious conviction that Jesus was innocent, since it 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


255 


Avas absurd to suppose that a desire to free the na¬ 
tion from Roman authority was criminal in the eyes 
of the Sanhedrin. Moreover, this latter feeling was 
strengthened by his own hatred of the Jews, whose 
religious scruples had caused him frequent trouble, 
and by a growing respect for the calm dignity and 
meekness of the sufferer. First, he examined our 
Lord privately, and asked him whether he was a 
king? The question which he, in turn, put to his 
judge, “Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others tell 
it thee of me?” seems to signify that there was, in 
Pilate’s own mind, a suspicion that the prisoner 
really was not what he was charged with being; a 
suspicion which shows itself in a later question, 
“Whence art thou?” in the increasing desire to re¬ 
lease him, and in the refusal to alter the inscription 
on the cross. In any case Pilate accepted, as satis¬ 
factory, Christ’s assurance that his kingdo 7 n was 
not of this world, that is, not worldly in its nature 
or objects, and therefore, not to be founded by this 
world’s weapons, though he could not understand 
the assertion that it was to be established by bearing 
witness to the truth. His famous reply, “What is 
truth?” was the question of a wordly-minded poli- 
cian ; skeptical, because he was indifferent; one who 
thought truth an empty name, or at least could not 
see “any connection between truth and policy.” 
With this question he brought the interview to a 
close, and came out to the Jews and declared the 
prisoner innocent. To this they replied that his 
teaching had stirred up all the people from Galilee 
to Jerusalem. The mention of Galilee suggested to 


256 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


Pilate a new way of escaping from his dilemma, by 
sending on the case to Herod Antipas, tetrarch of 
that country, who had come up to Jerusalem to the 
feast, while at the same time it gave him an oppor¬ 
tunity of making overtures of reconciliation to 
Herod, with whose jurisdiction he had probably in 
some recent instance interfered. But Herod, though 
propitiated by this act of courtesy, declined to enter 
into the matter, and merely sent Jesus back to Pilate- 
dressed in shining, kingly robes, to express his 
ridicule of such pretensions, and contempt for the 
whole business. So Pilate was compelled to come 
to a decision, and, first having assembled the chief 
priests and also the people, whom he probably sum¬ 
moned in the expectation that they would be favora¬ 
ble to Jesus, he announced to them all, that the 
accused had done nothing worthy of death, but at 
the same time in hopes of pacifying the Sanhedrin, 
he proposed to scourge him before he released him. 
But as the accusers were resolved to have his blood 
they rejected his concession, and, therefore, Pilate 
had recourse to a fresh expedient. It was the cus¬ 
tom for the Roman governor to grant every year, in 
honor of the Passover, pardon to one condemned 
criminal. The origin of the practice is unknown, 
though we may mention it with the fact mentioned 
by Livy that at a Lectisternium “vinctis quoque 
dempta vinculu.” 

Pilate, therefore, offered the people their choice 
between two, the murderer Barabbas and the prophet 
whom a few days before was hailed as the Messiah. 
To receive their decision, he ascended the bema, a 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


257 


portable tribunal which was carried about with a 
Roman magistrate, to be placed wherever he might 
direct, and which in the present instance was erec¬ 
ted on a tessellated pavement in front of the palace, 
and called in Hebrew Gabbatha, probably from being 
laid down on a slight elevation. As soon as Pilate 
had taken his seat, he received a mysterious mes¬ 
sage from his wife—according to tradition, a prose¬ 
lyte of the gate, named Procla, or Procula, “who 
had suffered many things in a dream,” which im¬ 
pelled her to entreat her husband not to condemn 
the Just One. But he had no longer any choice in 
the matter, for the rabble, instigated of course by 
the priests, chose Barabbas for pardon, and clamored 
for the death of Jesus ; insurrection seemed imminent 
and Pilate reluctantly yielded. But before issuing 
the fatal order, Pilate washed his hands before the 
multitude as a sign that he was innocent of the 
crime, in imitation, probably, of the ceremony 
enjoined in Deut. xxi., where it is ordered that 
when the perpetrator of a murder is not discovered, 
the elders of the city in which it occurs shall wash 
their hands, with the declaration, “Our hands have 
not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.” 

Such a practice might be adopted even by a Ro¬ 
man, as intelligible to the Jewish multitude around 
him. As in the present case it produced no effect, 
Pilate ordered his soldiers to inflict the scourging 
preparatory to execution , but the sight of unjust suf¬ 
fering so patientty borne, seems again to have 
troubled his conscience and prompted a new effort 
in favor of the victim. He brought him out bleeding 


258 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


from the savage punishment, and decked in the 
scarlet robe and crown of thorns, which the soldiers 
had put on him in derision, and said to the people, 
“Behold the man!” hoping that such a spectacle 
would rouse them to shame and compassion. But 
the priests only renewed their clamors for his death 
and fearing that the political charge of treason 
might be insufficient, returned to their first accusa¬ 
tion of blasphemy, and, quoting the law of Moses, 
which punished blasphemy with stoning, declared 
that he must die, “because he made himself thn Son 
tifGod.” But this title, Son of God, augmented 
/Pilate’s superstitious fears, already aroused by his 
wifes’s dream ; he feared that Jesus might be one of 
the heroes or demigods of his own mythology ; he 
took him again to the palace, and inquired anxiously 
into his descent and his claims, and as the question 
was prompted by fear or curiosity, Jesus made no 
reply. When Pilate reminded him of his own ab- 
* solute power over him, he closed this last conversa¬ 
tion with their resolute governor by the mournful re¬ 
mark “Thou couldst have no power at all against me 
except it were given from above ; therefore, he that 
delivered me unto these hath the greater sin.” 
God had given to Pilate power over him, and power 
only; but to those who delivered him up God had 
given the means of judging of his claims ; and, 
therefore, Pilate,s sin in merely exercising his power 
was less than theirs, who, being God’s own priest, 
with the Scriptures before them, and the word of 
prophecy still alive among them, had deliberately 
conspired for his death. The result of this inter- 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


259 


Anew was one last effort to save Jesus by a fresh ap¬ 
peal to the multitude; but now arose the formi¬ 
dable cry, “If thou let this man go, thou art not 
Caesar’s friend,” and Pilate, to whom political suc¬ 
cess was as the breath of life, again ascended the 
tribunal, and finally procured the desired condem¬ 
nation. So ended Pilate’s share in the greatest 
crime which has been committed since the world 
began. That he did not immediately lose his feelings 
of anger against the Jews, who had thus compelled 
his acquiesence, and of compassion and awe for the 
sufferer, whom he had unrighteously sentenced, is 
plain from his curt and angry refusal to alter the in¬ 
scription which he had prepared for the cross, his 
ready acquiescence in the request made by Joseph 
of Arimathasa that the Lord’s body might be given 
up to him rather than consigned to the common 
sepulchre reserved for those who had suffered capital 
punishment, and his sullen answer to the demand of 
the Sanhedrin that the sepulchre should be guarded. 
So far as Scripture is concerned, our knowledge of 
Pilate ends here. But we learn from Josephus that 
his anxiety to avoid giving offense to Caesar did 
not save him from political disaster. The Samaritans 
were unquiet and rebellious. A leader of their own 
race had promised to disclose to them the sacred 
treasures which Moses was reported to have con¬ 
cealed in Mount Gerizim. Pilate led his troops 
against them, and defeated them easily enough. 

The Samaritans complained to Vitellius, now 
president of Syria, and he sent Pilate to Rome to 
answer their accusations before the emperor. When 


260 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


he reached Rome he found Tiberius dead, and 
Caius (Caligula) on the throne, A. D. 36. Eusebius 
adds that soon afterwards, “wearied with misfor¬ 
tunes, he killed himself.” As to the scene of his 
death there are various traditions. One is that he 
was banished to Vienna Allobrogum, where a sin¬ 
gular monument, a pyramid on a quadrangular base 
52 feet high, is called Pontius Pilate’s tomb. An¬ 
other is that he sought to hide his sorrow on the 
mountain by the lake of Lucerne, now called Mount 
Pilatus ; and there, after spending years in its reces¬ 
ses, in remorse and despair rather than penitence, 
plunged into the dismal lake which occupies its sum¬ 
mit. 

The character of Pilate may be sufficiently in¬ 
ferred from the foregoing sketch of his conduct at 
our Lord’s trial. He was a type of the rich and 
Corrupt Romans of his age ; a worldly-minded states¬ 
man, conscious of no higher wants than those of this 
life, yet by no means unmoved by feelings of justice 
and mercy. His conduct to the Jews in the instan¬ 
ces given by Josephus, though severe, was not 
thoughtlessly cruel or tyrannical, considering the 
general practice of Roman governors, and the diffi¬ 
culties of dealing with a nation so arrogant and per¬ 
verse. Certainly there is nothing in the facts 
recorded by profane authors inconsistent with his 
desire to save our Lord. The unhappy notoriety 
given to his name by its place in the two universal 
creeds of Christendom is due, not to any desire to 
singling him out for shame, but to the need of fixing 
the date of our Lord’s death, and so bearing witness 


SKETCH OF PONTIUS PILATE. 


261 


to the claims of Christianity to rest on a historical 
basis. That the conduct of Pilate was highly crim¬ 
inal can not be denied. But his guilt was light in 
comparison with the atrocious depravity of the Jews 
especially the priests. His was the guilt of weakness 
and fear; theirs was the guilt of settled and delib¬ 
erate malice. His state of mind prompted him to 
attempt the release of an accused person in opposi¬ 
tion to the clamors of a misguided mob ; theirs urged 
them to compass the ruin of an innocent person by 
instigating the populace, calumniatiug the prisoner 
and terrifying the judge. Viewing the entire con¬ 
duct of Pilate, his previous iniquities as well as his 
bearing on the condemnation of Jesus, viewing his 
own actual position and the malignity of the Jews, 
we can not give our vote with those who have passed 
the severest condemnation on him as a weak and 
guilty governor. 

For further remark on the character of Pilate see note in “Chiar- 
iicter of Tiberius,” page 210. 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS: 


WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HIGH PRIESTHOOD 
AND JEWISH SANHEDRIN AND THEIR POWERS, 
AS RELATED TO THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF 
ROME. 


Prominently connected with the trial and cruci¬ 
fixion of Jesus legally considered, were four persons 
only—as representatives of the Roman and Jewish 
governments. These four persons were Tiberius 
Cassar, emperor of the Roman Empire, Pontius Pi¬ 
late his lieutenant in Judea, and Annas and Caia- 
phas, the high priests. 

A sketch of the two former has already been 
given. It now remains to give some account of the 
two latter executives, Annas and Caiaphas—in 
order that an intelligible view of the trial may be 
had,and the relationship of the Roman and Jewish 
authorities in the case be shown. 

We are told by Luke that while preaching, Jesus 
was informed by certain of the pharisees to this 
effect: 




Hasselman Photo. Eng. 


CAIAPHAS. 

From ‘'Christ before Pilate.” 


The original by M, de Munkacsy, 











































































. 



... . • 







ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


263 


“Get thee out , and depart hence; for Herod will kill 
thee. 

A nd he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold 
I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and tomorrow, 
and the third day I shall be perfected\ 

Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and 
the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish 
out of Jerusalem 

The actual execution of a criminal had, it is true, 
passed out of Jewish hands ; and none were allowed 
to put the death order into execution but the Roman 
power: still the consent of the Jewish Council was 
necessary, and in this sense our Saviour’s words 
are to be understood. 

The presiding officer of this grand Council or 
Sanhedrin was the high priest—occupied at the time 
of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus by Annas and 
his son-in-law, Caiaphas. 

We shall here, before coming to speak particu¬ 
larly of Annas and Caiaphas summarize a history 
of the High priesthood, dating from the Exodus out 
of Egypt down to the trial of Jesus, and afterward 
until the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, A. 
D. 70 .— 


*It is here w orth our while to remark, that none could be put to 
death in Judea but by the approbation of the Jewish sanhedrin, 
there being an excellent provision in the law of Moses, that, even in 
criminal causes, and particularly where life was concerned, an appeal 
should lie from the lesser councils of seven in the other cities, to the 
supreme council of seventy-one at Jerusalem ; and this is exactly ac¬ 
cording to our Saviour’s words, when he says : “It could not be that 
a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem.” 



264 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


The Scripture Records inform us that Aaron, the 
brother of Moses, officiated first as high priest to 
God; and that after his demise his sons succeeded 
to the office immediately ; and we are also informed 
that no one else could succeed to that dignity except 
those descended of Aaron, while every one that 
might be of another stock, though he were a king, 
could not obtain the office of the high priesthood. 

It could come only by birthright, when truly and 
legally exercised ; though, as we shall hereafter see, 
the office was not thus always obtained, after the 
Jewish State began to lose its civil authority. 

The whole number of high-priest from Aaron un¬ 
til Phanas, who was the last to fill that office, was 
eighty three. [Josephus Book xx. vin.] 

Thirteen of these officiated during their sojourn 
in the wilderness, under Moses. 

Under the first constitution, high priests held 
office during life, but later on they had successors 
while still alive. 

Under the Aristocratic form of government as we 
have said, the high priesthood proceeded by direct 
succession, one after another. 

For six hundred and twelve years, that is during 
the rule of the first thirteen, covering the period 
from the Exodus of Egypt till the building of the 
Temple of Solomon, this was the case. 

From the days of Solomon till Nebuchadnezzar’s 
expedition against Jerusalem eighteen highpriests, 
in like succession filled the office. 

The time covered by their rule was four hundred 
and sixty years. 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


2(55 


At this time Nebuchadnezzar took the city and 
"burnt the Temple and the kings house, and every 
great man's house with fire, and broke down the 
walls of the city, taking away nearly all the inhabi¬ 
tants except the poor, among those carrried away 
being the chief priest Seraiah and Zephaniah the 
second priest, and the keepers of the door. [See 
n. Kings Chap. xxv. 9—IS.] 

When after seventy years at Babylon, the Jews 
were liberated by the Persian King Cyrus, they 
returned to their own land, Jesus the son of Josedek 
son of Seraiah mentioned above was their high 
priest. 

The names of the high priests who officiated in 
the great Temple of Solomon deserve to be men¬ 
tioned here, as the only priests that were ever asso¬ 
ciated with the splendours of that great house. 

These are the names : 

Zadoc. 

Achimas. 

Azarias. 

Joram. 

Issus. 

Axioramus. 

Phideas. 

Sudeas. 

Juelus. 

Jotham. 

Urias. 

Nerias. 

Odeas. 

Sallumus. 


266 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


Elcias. 

Azarias. 

Seraiah. 

Josadoc. 

The high priest Jesus who came back with the 
captives from Babylon B. C. 535 is mentioned as 
having a posterity of fifteen. These ruled till Anti- 
ochus, and were under a democratic government 
during 14 years. 

From this time on until Herod the Great’s ap¬ 
pointment of Ananelus we have the names : 

Jesus. 

Onias. 

Jacimus. 

Jonathan. 

Simon. 

Hyrcanus. 

Judas. 

Alexander. 

Aristobulus. 

From the appointment of Ananelus by Herod till 
the destruction of the Holy City, A. D. 70, we have 
the following high priests some of whose names as 
being so frequently mentioned in our New Testa¬ 
ment Scriptures will be familiar to the reader, and 
at the end of which list will be found the last of that 
Sacred Order which had officiated now in this holy 
office for over fifteen hundred years. 

A fist of those from Herod to the destruction of 
the city by Titus is given below: 

1. Ananelus. 

2. Aristobulus. 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


267 


3. Jesus, the son of Fabus. 

4. Simon, the son of Boethus. 

5. Matthias, the son of Theophilus 

6. Joazer, the son of Boethus. 

7. Eleazar, the son of Boethus. 

8. Jesus, the son of Sie. 

9. [Annas, or] Ananus, the son of Seth. 

10. Ismael, the son of Fabus. 

11. Eleazar, the son of Ananus. 

12. Simon, the son of Camithus. 

13. Josephus Caiaphas, the son-in-law to Ananus. J 

14. Jonathan, the son of Ananus. 

15. Theophilus, his brother, and son of Ananus. 

16. Simon, the son of Boethus. 

17. Matthias, the brother of Jonathan, and son of 

Ananus. 

18. Aljoneus. 

19. Josephus, the son of Camydus. 

20. Ananias, the son of Nebedeus. 

21. Jonathan. 

22. Ismael, the son of Fabi. 

23. Joseph Cabi, the son of Simon. 

24. Ananus, the son of Annanus. 

25. Jesus, the son of Damneus. 

26. Jesus, the son of Gamaliel. 

27. Matthias, the son of Theophilus. 

28. Phannias, the son of Samuel. 

The time covered by these high priests was from 
the days of Herod until Titus took the city and 
Temple and burnt them, a period of one hundred 
and seven years. 

Of the first on this list it has been well said, that 


268 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


he was the third that was ever turned out of the 
priesthood unjustly and wickedly by the civil power ; 
no king or governor having ever ventured to do so 
but that heathen tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes ; that 
barbarous parricide Aristobulus, the first that took 
authority among the Maccabees; and this tyrant 
king, Herod the Great. Yet after this the practice 
became frequent till the destruction of Jerusalem 
when the office of highpriesthood ended forever. 

No. 13 on the list are the Annas and Caiaphas, so 
often mentioned in the Four Gospels as presiding 
at the trial before Pilate. 

No. 20 was the high priest before whom St. Paul 
pleaded his own cause. (See Acts of Apostles, 
Chap. xxiv. 

It should be remarked here also that in the list given 
before this will be found the name Hyrcanus who 
began to reign as priest about B. C. 136, and died 
B. C. 106. His death really ended the high priest¬ 
hood, and the holy theocracy or divine government 
of the Jewish nation, and its Oracle by Urim. 

After his reign came the Asamoneans or Macca¬ 
bees monarchy that has been well called the profane 
and tyranical Jewish monarchy, and then that of 
Herod the Great, the Idumean, till the birth of Christ. 

Strabo the Greek historian, of the first century 
who gives us a description of every part of the 
world known in his time, tells us in his Book xvi. 
pp. 761—762: “Those that succeeded Moses, con¬ 
tinued for some time in earnest, both in piety and 
righteous actions; but after a while there were 
others that took upon them the priesthood ; first, su- 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


269 

perstitious, and afterwards tyrannical persons. 

Such a prophet was Moses and those who succee¬ 
ded him, beginning m a way not to be blamed, but 
changing for the worse. 

And when it openly appeared that the government 
was becoming tyranical, Alexander was the first 
that set himself for a king instead of a priest, and 
his sons were Hyrcanus and Aristobulus.” 

It might be truly said that history does scarcely 
present us with another so long a list of officers, 
acting so consecutively and under so many vicissi¬ 
tudes, with such uniform devotion to one great idea, 
as had belonged to this dignified Order of the Jew¬ 
ish highpriests, at least down till the time of Hyrca¬ 
nus. 

God in the wilderness was he, when camping 
round old Sinai , the tribes of Israel were an army 
in exile without home, without house, except the 
tabernacle, without shelter, except the tent, and with 
no hope of country but the “promised land.” 

Aaron was as God then, wearing the holy vest¬ 
ments “made for glory and for beauty,” and bear¬ 
ing upon his shoulders and on his breast the royal 
insignia of Heaven. 

The great shepherd-leader of the flock of God, 
we seem to hear the musical tinkles of the shining 
golden bells at his feet, as he and his sons guided 
that flock by mountain and stream, through the long 
campaign of forty years in the wilderness, under that 
banner clothed with cloud by day, pillared with fire 
by night. Prime minister of God, whose court was 
within the Holy of holies, meeting place with God, 


270 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


whither no living man but him might stand, and 
from whose decrees there might be no appeal. 

This w r as the high priesthood at its fountain head. 
It never w r as to be less ; it never was less in the 
Jewish idea of it. It was an office under God’s di¬ 
rect appointment succeeded to by birth alone, and 
never to become the gift of a mere civil magistrate. 
And this idea of it was carried out into the time of 
Herod the Great’s reign with but three exceptions, 
already mentioned. 

But after that the high priest was occasionally ap¬ 
pointed at the mere whim of the civil ruler, a good 
example of which occurs under Valerius Gratus 
the Roman Procurator officiating just before Pilate. 

Gratus dismissed Annas from the priesthood, and 
appointed Ismael to the place; a little while after 
Ismael was deprived and Eleazar son of Ananus, 
then Simon, all in a few years; and then Joseph 
Caiaphas was made high priest by Gratus. 

Caiaphas the son-in-law of Annas was appointed 
to the office of high priest by the Roman procura¬ 
tor, Valerius Gratus, who came to Judea under Ti¬ 
berius Caesar before Pilate’s administration. Cai¬ 
aphas was therefore installed in office about the year 
a. d. 25, and by the same procurator who had de¬ 
prived Annas of it a few years before. He con¬ 
tinued in office till after the crucifixion, and was at 
the trial of Peter and John, with Annas : though 
Annas seems to have been acting high priest in that 
trial. 

We have but slight mention of the name of Cai¬ 
aphas in any history. 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


271 


We have an opinion of his recorded in John’s 
Gospel, Chap, xi: 49, 50, which seems to argue that 
in his view of the case, it was a political necessity 
that Jesus should be put to death, rather than that 
through his influence alive, the whole Jewish polity 
should be destroyed. 

This opinion was expressed before the council of 
chief priests and Pharisees, met to discuss this ques¬ 
tion just after the raising of Lazarus from the dead. 

Caiaphas although acting high priest was in real¬ 
ity but the deputy of old Annas ; and though stand¬ 
ing in the holy office with great dignity, pride and 
arrogance, did but carry out the judgment and be¬ 
hests of Annas. We may therefore well dismiss 
him here, with so small remark, and take up Annas 
'll ho was really high priest. 

Annas was first appointed to office by Cyrenius 
when the taxings were completed in the 37th year 
of Caesar’s victory over Antony at the battle of 
Actium, that is about A. d. 7 of our era. 

We are told by Josephus that so long was his 
reign added to that of his son-in-law’s, and his five 
sons’ that he “was a sort of perpetual high priest.” 
For, as intimated above, and shown in many of his 
acts, he was the moving spirit, “the power behind 
the throne” during all of this long period of his 
and his family’s control in the high office. 

He was a shrewd and far-seeing man in a politi¬ 
cal view, and seems to have been a consistent de¬ 
votee of the law. His long continued tenure of 
office in the troublesome times through which he 
passed, and the high esteem in which he was held 


272 


ANNAS VND CAIAPHAS. 


proves him to have been a man of ability, of devo¬ 
tion to the principles of the old constitution of his 
fathers, and zealous for the law. 

It was before him, first of all, that Jesus was 
taken, and from other mention of him, such as that 
in the iv chap, of Acts of Apostles, where he alone 
is mentioned as “high priest,” and Caiaphas' name 
is mentioned incidentally, with others who were at 
trial of Peter and John for preaching and healing 
in the name of Christ, it is probable that Annas was 
really to the Jews and in their estimation at least. 
the real and rightful high priest. 

Much has been said of the **mob trial” of Jesus,, 
of its illegality and informality and irregularity^ 
Much also of prejudicial remark has been made 
against Annas and Caiaphas which cannot be held 
to be just. 

Annas at least must have understood the duties of 
the priestly office well. His long continuance in 
office speaks well for him ; and had he been unwise 
or unjust in its administration, it is difficult to see 
how five of his sons and his son-in-law could have 
succeeded to it. 

His name is mentioned long after the crucifixion, 
in connection with the stirring and troublous times 
near the destruction of Jerusalem as “the most an¬ 
cient of the high priests” then alive, and as engaged 
in persuading the people to the defense of justice 
when the Holy City beset by a mob elected to the 
high priesthood an ignoble, ignorant and brutish 
rustic who did not know what the priesthood was. 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


273 


The name of this man appears on the list as No, 
28 (see Joseph. Wars. B. iv C. iii). 

Annas must have been quite an aged man at this 
time, for he had received the priesthood in a. d. 7. 
But though old he does not relax his hold on the 
rights of his people, he does not stand by silent, 
while the highest dignity of the nation is being trod¬ 
den under the heel of robbers. He, in the spirit of 
his son with a flood of tears in his eyes, could help 
with his presence the last appeal to his countrymen, 
for the dignity of the priesthood. 

We quote below his son’s speech. It will convey 
to the mind of the reader the animus of the high 
priest toward the Roman rule as well as exhibit the 
feeling of the priests towards all native Jews who 
would favor the spirit of insurrection at such a time. 


SPEECH OF ANANUS. 

And now, when the multitude were gotten together to an assem¬ 
bly, and every one was in indignation at these men’s seizing upon 
the sanctuary, at their rapine and murders, but had not yet begun 
their attacks upon them (the reason of which was this*—that they 
imagined it to be a difficult thing to suppress these zealots, as indeed 
the case was) Ananus stood in the midst of them, and casting his eyes 
frequently at the temple, and having a flood of tears in his eyes, he 
said,—“Certainly, it had been good for me to die before I had seen 
the house of God full of so many abominations, or these sacred 
places that ought not to be trodden upon at random, filled with the 
feet of these blood-shedding villians ; yet do I, who am clothed with 
the vestments of the high priesthood, and am called by the most 
venerable name of high priest, still live, and am but too fond of 
living, and cannot endure to undergo a death which would be the 
glory of my old age ; and if I were the only person concerned, and, 
as it were, in a desert, I would give up my life, and that alone for 
God’s sake; for to what purpose is it to live among a people insensi- 




274 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


ble of their calamities, and where there is no notion remaining of 
any remedy for the miseries that are upon them? for when you are 
seized upon, you bear it! and , when you are beaten, you are silent! 
and when the people are murdered, nobody dare so much as send 
out a groan openly! O bitter tyranny that we are under! But why 
do I complain of the tyrants? Was it not you, and your sufferance 
of them, that have nourished them? Was it not you that over¬ 
looked those that first of all got together, for they were then but a 
few, and by your silence made them grow to be many ; and by con¬ 
niving at them when they took arms, in effect armed them against 
yourselves? You ought to have then prevented their first attempts, 
when they fell a reproaching your relations; but by neglecting that 
care in time, you have encouraged these wretches to plunder men. 
When houses were pillaged nobody said a word, which was the occa¬ 
sion why they carried off the owners of those houses; and when they 
were drawn through the midst of the city, nobody came to their as¬ 
sistance. They then proceeded to put those whom you have betrayed 
into their hands, into bonds. I do not say how many, and of what 
characters those men were whom they thus served, but certainly they 
were such as were accused by none, and condemned by none ? and since 
nobody succoured them when they were in bonds, the consequence 
was, that you saw the same persons slain. We have seen this also; so 
that still the best of the herd of brute animals, as it were, have been 
still led to be sacrificed, when yet nobody said one word, or moved 
his right hand for their preservation. Will you bear, therefore, will 
you bear to see your sanctuary trampled on? and will you lay steps 
for these profane wretches, upon which they may mount to higher 
degrees of insolence? Will you not pluck them down from their ex¬ 
altation? for even by this time, they had proceeded to higher enor¬ 
mities, if they had been able to overthrow any thing greater than 
the sanctuary. They have seized upon the strongest place of the 
whole city ; you may call it the temple, if you please, though it be 
like a citadel or fortress. Now, while you have tyranny in so great 
a degree walled in, and see your enemies over your heads, to what 
purpose is it to take counsel? and what have you to support your 
minds withal? Perhaps you may wait for the Romans, that they 
may protect our holy places: are our matters then brought to that 
pass? and are we come to that degree of misery, that our enemies 
themselves are expected to pity us? O wretched creatures! will not 
you rise up, and turn upon those that strike you ; which you may 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


275 


■observe in wild beasts themselves, that they will avenge themselves 
on those that strike them. Will you not call to mind, every one of 
you, the calamities you yourselves have suffered? nor lay before your 
eyes what afflictions you yourselves have undergone? and will not such 
things sharpen your souls to revenge? Is therefore that most hon¬ 
ourable and most natural of our passions utterly lost, I mean the 
desire of liberty? Truly, we are in love with slavery, and in love 
with those that lord it over us, as if we had received that principle 
of subjection from our ancestors! yet did they undergo many and 
great wars for the sake of liberty, nor were they so far overcome by 
the power of the Egyptians, or the Medes, but that they still did what 
they thought fit, notwithstanding their commands to the contrary. 
And what occasion is there now for a war with the Romans? (I med¬ 
dle not with determining whether it be an advantageous and profit¬ 
able war or not.) What pretence is there for it? Is it not that we 
may enjoy our liberty? Besides, shall we not bear the lords of the 
habitable earth to be lords over us, and yet bear tyrants of our own 
country? Although I must say that submission to foreigners may be 
borne, because fortune has already doomed us to it, while submission 
to wicked people of our own nation is too unmanly, and brought 
upon us by our own consent. However, since I have had occassion 
to mention the Romans, I will not conceal a thing that, as I am 
speaking, comes into my mind, and affects me considerably ;—it is 
this, that though we should be taken by them (God forbid the event 
should be so!) yet we can undergo nothing that will be harder to 
be borne than what these men have already brought upon us. How 
then can we avoid shedding of tears, when we see the Roman donations 
in our temples, while we withal see those of our own nation taking 
our spoils, and plundering our glorious metropolis, and slaughtering 
our men, from which enormities those Romans themselves would 
have abstained ; to see those Romans never going beyond the bonds 
allotted to profane persons, nor venturing to break in upon any of 
our sacred customs; nay, having a horror on their minds when they 
view at a distance those sacred walls, while some that have been 
born in this very country, and brought up in our customs, and called 
Jews, do walk about in the midst of the holy places, at the very lime 
when their hands are still warm with the slaughter of their own 
countrymen. Besides, can any one be afraid of a war abroad, and 
that, with such as will have comparatively much greater moderation 
than our own people have? For truly, if we may suit our words to 


276 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


things they represent, it is probable one may hereafter find the Ro¬ 
mans to be the supporters of our laws, and those within ourselves 
the subverters of them. And now I am pursuaded that every one of 
you here comes satisfied before I speak, that these overthrowers of 
our liberties deserve to be destroyed, and that nobody can so much 
as devise a punishment that they have not deserved by what they 
have done, and that you are all provoked against them by those their 
wicked actions, whence you have suffered so greatly. But perhaps 
many of you are affrighted at the multitude of those zealots, and at 
their audaciousness, as well as at the advantage they have over us in 
their being higher in place than we are ; for these circumstances, as 
they have been occasioned by your negligence, so will they become 
still greater by being still longer neglected; for their multitude is 
every day augmented, by every ill man’s running away to those that 
are like to themselves, and their audaciousness is therefore inflamed, 
because they meet with no obstruction to their designs. And for 
their higher place, they will make use of it for engines also, if we 
give them time to do so ; but be assured of this, that if we got up 
to fight them, they will be made tamer by their own consciences, and 
what advantages they have in the height of their situation, they will 
lose by the opposition of their reason; perhaps also God himself, 
who hath been affronted by them, will make what they throw at us 
return against themselves, and these impious wretches will be killed* 
by their own darts : let us but make our appearance before them, 
and they will come to nothing. However, it is a right thing, if there 
should be any danger in the attempt,'to die before these holy gates, 
and to spend our very lives, if not for the sake of our children and 
wives, yet for God’s sake and for the sake of his sanctuary. I will 
assist you, both with my counsel and with my hand ; nor shall any 
sagacity of ours be wanting for your support; nor shall you see that 
I will be sparing of my body neither.”—Josephus’ Wars., B. IV., C. 
III. 


Annas seems to have favored harmony and unity 
among the Jews. The spirit of debate and com¬ 
plaint against the priestly government was sure to 
encourage sedition, and when sedition should bring 
anarchy then Rome would step in and take the gov- 



ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


277 


ernment away entirely from the Jews. This is inti¬ 
mated in this speech as well as elsewhere, and we 
must think that herein lies one reason of that bitter¬ 
ness which the priests felt toward Jesus, and which 
is well expressed by the Jewish Council in the 
words spoken of Jesus, “if we let him thus alone, 
all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall 
come and take away both our place and nation.” 
that is take away the priestly office and abolish their 
power and authority in all things [John xi. 48.] 

It would be well to pause here long enough to 
ask ourselves the meaning of the above saying of 
the council, and to ask. how could the letting alone 
of Jesus aid the Romans in taking away the power 
of the priests and rulers of the Jews ? 

It will readily be seen from the speech of Ananus 
just quoted, in how confused a condition the domes¬ 
tic affairs of Jerusalem were. The home govern¬ 
ment had already become as bad as well could 
he. It had grown from bad to worse ever since 
the crucifixion of Jesus. 

But even at that time society and governmental 
affairs were very turbulent, as Pilate has so vividly 
pictured in one of his Reports. 

Now, there were but two sources of power by 
which any correction of this state of affairs could be 
made ; viz. by the power of the Sanhedrin under the 
priesthood, or else, by the Civil power of Rome. 

If the priesthood should become entirely incom¬ 
petent to guide the affairs of the State, there was 
hut one alternative, viz., that it should yield it en¬ 
tirely to Roman hands. 


278 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


Evidently, there was no middle ground here, and 
the shrewd priests could see this state of affairs 
staring them in the face, and threatening their 
office more and more as each month rolled round. 
The home government was in no position during 
the preaching of Jesus to be attacked every day as 
being corrupt and venal to the last degree of hypo¬ 
criticalness. 

The charge of unbounded hypocracy and venality 
as urged against the very fountainhead of a govern¬ 
ment, and as continuing until deserving the “dam- 

1 O O 

nation of hell,” was not well calculated to keep 
down rebellion or quell sedition among a people al¬ 
ready smarting under misrule from abroad as well as 
by its own native citizenship. 

For this reason there stands a charge in the death 
warrant of Jesus, as dictated or suggested by the 
Jews that, “He is seditious !” 

“He is the enemy of the Law !” 

We find in St. Luke a reply by Jesus which 
seems to be a partial denial of such a change, in 
these words : 

Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of 
the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be 
ye come out, as against a thief, with s 7 c>ords and staves? 

When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched 
jorth no hands against me; but this is your hour, and the 
power of darkness. (See Luke xxii 52. yj) 

Yet we see in them also a remnant of that invec¬ 
tive which He had often thrown out against the ru¬ 
lers, and, while for the moment He would make 
excuse, He immediately iterates what would again 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


279 


arouse them to fury by calling to mind the denunci¬ 
ations of their conduct so frequently made by Him 
before the people at large. 

And here it may be noted with emphasis was the 
core of the offence committed by Jesus. His attack 
on the interpretation of the Law as well as on the 
administration of it by the Jewish rulers then in 
power. 

For, it must be known, that Jesus assumed a con¬ 
struction of the Moral Law even, in a wider sense, 
a broader and more liberal scheme than the narrow, 
contracted and conservative interpretation of it as 
held by the Jewish doctors, scribes and priests. 

There was between his doctrine of it and theirs— 
to use a phrase of our own time “an irrepressible 
conflict”—a conflict between an aggressive, radical 
and progessive move toward a republic of mankind 
and for mankind, and the narrow, sectional one-man- 
ism of monarchy, or, what is little better, the con¬ 
densation of all power into a mere aristocratic 
Oligarchy. 

It was a conflict between the Abrahamic and the 
Mosaic ideas of government—Jesus for the Abra¬ 
hamic—Annas for the Mosaic. 

It was the battle ground of the two greatest ideas 
that have ever moved on human society, in any, and 
in all ages. On that field Jesus yielded up His life 
as the foremost captain of, and for, human rights, 
bearing aloft that blessedest of all banners, inscribed 
with the name “Son of Man." Man was his motto 
—not “the Sabbath” nor a “peculiar people,” but 
Man , the whole human family. 


280 ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 

In so doing he abolished the narrow birthright 
that was stolen long ago by Jacob, and that drove 
his brother Esau from the field of blessing, and did 
confer it on us all. the birthright of being a man. 
And every such an one, He hath given the right to 
become “king and priest to God ” 

But the high priests of His day could not see it so. 
They had been born and reared under the “Old 
Constitution”—a sort of “states-right” idea held 
them, segregated to themselves—separate, distinct, 
peculiar—and fenced round by a conservatism that 
was circumscribed from all others. Ten tribes first, 
and after that, peace-meal, it went down to this 
very hour, when “the oldest and the smallest sect in 
the world” makes up the last remnant of “the old 
Constitution.” 

Dean Stanley in his “Sinai and Palestine” gives 
us this little picture, as he sketched it from Mount 
Gerizim. 

“There is, probably, no other locality in which the same 
worship has bee?i sustained with so little change or inter¬ 
ruption for so great a series of years, as that of this 
mountain, from A braham to the preseut day. In their 
humble synagogue, at the foot of the mountain, the Sama¬ 
ritans still worship—the oldest and the smallest sect in the 
world. And up the side of the mountain, and on its long 
ridge, is to be traced the pathway by which they ascend to 
the sacred spots where they yearly celebrate, alone of all 
the Jewish race, the Paschal Sacrifice .”— Stanley, Sinai 
and Palestine, 236. 

Look now at Aaron, look on his shining garments, 
his breast plate, his golden bells tinkling at his feet, 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


281 


look on the proud list that in the Holy of Holies kept, 
when the Golden Temple stood, look on Annas and 
•on Caiaphas, look further on, to Phannias, the rus¬ 
tic brute that filled it last, when Roman Eagles tore 
the golden Cherubs wing above the Ark, and bore 
it oft' to Rome, and left the levelled City, like a 
plowman’s field, and you will see the priesthood’s 
reign—and the priesthood’s fall. 

Fifteen centuries rolled by while these things were 
accomplishing. 

That humble synagogue, whose picture we have 
just shown you from Stanley’s pen, is what remains 
of the Old Order of things under the Jewish priest¬ 
hood, whose final act was the rolling of the great 
stone against the mouth of Jesus’ tomb. 

To them that stone has never been rolled away. 
For us it has. 

The faith of Abraham,, head of the family of the 
Faithful, rose o’er that tomb and has become “the 
light of the World!” 

Jesus has become high priest of Humanity. 

Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate and Tiberius, have be¬ 
come famous only as connected with the tragedy of 
his crucifixion. 

No priestly name among the fourscore and three, 
will be so long remembered as the names Annas and 
Caiaphas—no Roman emperor and lieutenant’s live 
like those of Pilate and Tiberius, no simple peasant’s 
called so oft as Peter, James and John, and the three 
Marys’, yea, Lazarus’, of Bethany—shall enjoy that 
high immortality of history, translated into every 
tongue, and in all anthems sung. Ringing round the 


282 


ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS. 


world for nigh two thousand years, these names 
have swung, echoing the times that His great work 
was done, who should forever be the one High 
Priest. 













PHARISEE. 


From ‘“Christ before Pilate.” 





TESTIMONY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN 

FATHERS RELATIVE TO THE ACTS OF PILATE. 

JUSTIN MARTYR, 

(FIRST APOLOGY.) 

Sec. 1 — “To the emperor Titus ^Elius Adrianus 
Antoninus Pius Augustus Csesar. to his son Veris- 
simus the philosopher, and Lucius the philosopher, 
the natural son of Csesar but the adopted son of 
Pius, and the lover of learning, and to the Sacred 
Senate and to the whole people of Rome, in favor 
of those men of all nations who are unjustly hated 
and oppressed, I, Justin, the son of Priscus and 
grandson of Bacchius, native of Flavia Neapolis, a 
city of Palestine, being one of them, have com¬ 
posed this address and petition.” 

Sec. 35.—“And that Christ, after his birth, 
should be unknown to other men until he was 
grown to man’s estate, which also came to pass, 
hear what was foretold of this. The words are as 
follows: 4 A child is born to us, and a young man 
is given to us, whose government is upon his shoul¬ 
ders,’ which is significant of the power of the cross ; 



284 EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 

to which, when crucified, he applied his shoulders, 
as shall be more clearly shown in the course of my 
explanation. And, again, the same prophet Isaiah, 
who was inspired by the prophetical Spirit, says: 
‘I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and 
gainsaying people, to those who walk in a way that 
is not good. They ask me now for judgment, and 
presume to draw nigh to God’. “And again in 
other words by another prophet, who says : ‘They 
pierced my hands and my feet and cast lots upon 
my garments.’ Yet David the king and prophet, 
who uttered these words, underwent none of these 
things : but Jesus Christ stretched out his hands, 
and was crucified by the Jews, who contradicted 
him and denied him to be the Christ.’ For. in¬ 
deed, as the prophet said, they mocked him, and set 
him on the judgment seat and said, ‘Judge us.’ 
But the words ‘They pierced my hands and feet,’ 
are a description of the nails that were fixed in his 
hands and his feet on the cross. And after he was 
crucified, those who crucified him cast lots for his 
garments and divided them among themselves. 

And that these things were so , you may learn 
from the Acts which were recorded under Pontius 
Pilate .” 

Sec. 48.—“And that it was foretold that our 
Christ should heal all diseases, and raise the dead, 
hear what was said. It is as follows: ‘Then the 
eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of 
the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap 
as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.’ 


EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 


285 


“That he performed these things,yon may easily be 
satisfied, from the Acts of Pontius Pilate(See 
Justin's Apology, in “Early Christian Literature 
Primers”—by George P. Fisher, of 2ale College: 
D. A-pfleton & Co., 1879 . 


TESTIMONY OF TERTULLIAN. 


The learned Tertullian in his Apology for Chris¬ 
tianity, about the year a. d. 200, says: Chap. 2. 
“Out of envy Jesus was surrendered by the Jewish 
ceremonial lawyers to Pilate, and by him, after he 
had yielded to the cries of the people, given over 
for crucifixion ; while hanging on the cross he gave 
up the ghost with a loud cry, and thus anticipated 
the executioner’s duty; at that same hour the day 
was interrupted by a sudden darkness ; a guard of 
soldiers was set at the grave for the purpose of pre¬ 
venting his disciples stealing his body, since he had 
predicted his resurrection, but on the third day the 
ground was suddenly shaken, and the stone was 
rolled away from before the sepulchre ; in the grave 
nothing was found but the articles used in his bur¬ 
ial ; and the report was spread abroad by those who 
stood outside that the disciples had taken the body 
away; Jesus spent forty days with them in Galilee, 
teaching them what their mission should be ; and 
after giving them their instructions as to what they 
should preach, he was raised in a cloud to heaven. 
All this was reported to the emferor at that time , 
Tiberius, by Pilate , his conscience having com¬ 
pelled even him to become a Christian.” (See 
Tischendorf s account in “Origin of the Four Gos¬ 
pels.”) Tertullian in the same Apology, thus 



EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 


287 


relates the proceedings of the Roman emperor, 
Tiberius, on receiving Pilate’s account: 

“There was an ancient decree that no one should 
he received for a diety unless he was first approved 
by the Senate. 

“Tiberius, in whose time the Christian religion 
had its rise, having received from Palestine, in 
Syria, an account of such things as manifested the 
truth of Christ’s divinity, proposed to the senate 
that he should be enrolled among the Roman gods : 
and gave his own prerogative vote in favor of the 
motion. 

“But the senate rejected it, because the emperor 
himself had declined the same honor (of being dei¬ 
fied). Nevertheless, the emperor persisted in his 
opinion, and threatened punishment to the accusers 
of the Christians.” 


EUSEBIUS’ TESTIMONY. 


•‘The fame of our Lord’s remarkable resurrec¬ 
tion being now spread abroad, according to an an¬ 
cient custom prevalent among the rulers of the 
nations to communicate important occurrences to 
the emperor, that nothing might escape him, Pontius 
Pilate transmits to Tiberius an account of the cir¬ 
cumstances concerning the resurrection of our Lord 
from the dead, the report of which had already 
spread throughout all Palestine. In this account he 
intimated also that he ascertained other miracles re¬ 
specting him, and now having risen from the dead, 
he was believed to be a god by the great mass of 
the people. 

“Tiberius referred the matter to the Senate, but 
it is said they rejected the proposition, apparently 
because they had not examined into this subject 
first, according to an ancient law among the Ro¬ 
mans, that no one should be ranked among the gods 
unless by a vote and decree of the Senate : in real¬ 
ity, however, because the salutary doctrine of the 
Gospel needs no confirmation and co-operation of 
men. 

“Tiberius, therefore, under whom the name of 
Christ was spread throughout the world, when this 
doctrine was announced to him from Palestine, 
where it first began, communicated with the Senate, 



EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 


289 


being obviously pleased with the doctrine ; but the 
Senate, as they had not proposed the measure, re¬ 
jected it. 

“But the emperor continued in his opinion, threat¬ 
ening death to the accusers of the Christians ; a di¬ 
vine providence infusing this into his mind, that the 
Gospel, having freer scope in the commencement, 
might spread everywhere over the world.” (See 
Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical Hist., Book II., Chap. 2.) 

EUSEBIUS’ ACCOUNT OF THE FORGERY OF THE ACTS 
OF PILATE. 

The authorit\ r and force of the appeals made by 
early Christians to these documents of Pilate’s were 
felt by the opponents of Christianity to such an ex¬ 
tent, that during the reign of the Emperor Maximin, 
a. d. 311, false Acts of Pilate were forged manifest¬ 
ly for the purpose of discrediting and displacing the 
older Christian Acts. 

Concerning the extent and bitterness to which 
this forgery was carried Eusebius, who lived at the 
time, says : “Having forged certain Acts of Pilate, 
respecting our Saviour, full of every kind of blas¬ 
phemy against Christ, these with the consent of the 
Emperor, they sent through the whole of the empire 
subject to him, commanding at the same time by 
ordinances in every place and city, and the adja¬ 
cent districts, to publish these to all persons, and to 
give them to the school-masters to hand to their pu¬ 
pils to study and to commit to memory, as exercises 
for declamation.* Whilst these things were being 

* According to Eusebius, “the boys had nothing but Jesus and 
Pilate in their mouths the whole day long.”—Hist. Ecc. ix. 5, 7. 



290 


EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 


done, another commander whom the Romans call 
Dux, in Damascus, a city of Phoenicia, caused cer¬ 
tain infamous females to be seized in the forum : 
threatening to inflict torture upon them, he forced 
them to make a formal declaration, taken down on 
record that they had once been Christians and that 
they had been privy to the criminal acts among 
them ; that in their very churches they committed 
licentious deeds, and innumerable other slanders, 
which he wished them to utter against our religion, 
which declarations he inserted in the Acts and com¬ 
municated to the emperor, who immediately com¬ 
manded these documents to be published in every 
city and place.” [See Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical 
Hist., Book IX, Chap. 5.] 

Such is the testimony of these early and able 
Christian Fathers. It needs no argument, in the 
face of such a body of evideuce, to show that Pilate 
made a very complete report to the Roman emperor 
concerning Jesus ; and that this report was entirely 
favorable to the claims made by the Christians of 
the divinity of their Master. 

We must feel that if Justin, Tertullian and Euse¬ 
bius have deceived us in the testimony on the most 
vital point of the system of faith we know as Chris¬ 
tianity—then we have a right to doubt any other 
statements they have made in regard to the death 
aud resurrection of Jesus Christ. We ask the read¬ 
er’s careful attention to the lives and characters of 
these witnesses given in the following pages. We 
add further only the testimony of Chrysostom and 
Orosius. 


TESTIMONY OF CHRYSOSTOM. 


Chrysostom, golden-mouthed, so named from the 
splendor of his eloquence, was born at Antioch a. d. 
347. He was originally a lawyer, but abandoned a 
successful practice to become a teacher of Christian¬ 
ity. In 381 he was ordained a deacon. In 386 he 
was ordained a presbyter, by Flavian bishop of An¬ 
tioch. In 397 Chrysostom was consecrated bishop 
of Constantinople. The most valuable of his works 
are the homilies on the New Testament and on the 
Psalms, most of which have been translated and 
published in the Oxford Library of the Fathers. 

‘‘The Roman Senate,” says he, “had the power 
of nominating and decreeing who should be gods. 
When, therefore, all things concerning Christ had 
been published, he who was the governor of the 
Jewish nation sent to them to know if they would be 
pleased to appoint him also to be a god. But they 
refused, being offended and provoked, that before 
their decree and judgment had been obtained, the 
power of the crucified man had shined out and had 
attracted all the world to the worship of him. But 
by the overruling providence of God this was 
brought to pass against their will, that the divinity 
of Christ might not be established by human ap¬ 
pointment, and that he might not be recognized one 
of the many deified bv them.” 



TESTIMONY OF OROSIUS. 


At postquam passus est Dominus Christus atque 
a mortuis resurrexit, et discipulos suos praedican- 
dum dimisit. Pilatus, praeses Palestinae, ad Tibe- 
rium imperatorem et resurrectione Christi, conse- 
quentibusque virtutibus, quae per ipsum palam factae 
fuerant, vel per discipulos ipsius in nomine ejus fie- 
bant, et de eo quod crescenti plurimorum fide Deus 
crederetur. Tiberius cum sufFragiis magni favoris 
retulit ad senatum. ut Christus deus haberetur. 
Senatus, indignatione motus, quod non sibi prius 
secundum morem delatum esset ut de suscipendo 
cultu prius ipse decernerent consecrationem Christi 
recusavit, edicto que constituit exterminandos esse 
Urbe christianos ; precipue cum et Sejanus, praefec- 
tus Tiberii suscipiendae religione obstinatissime con- 
tradiceret. Tiberius tamen edicto accusatoribus chris- 
tianorum mortem comminatus est. Orisii Liber, 7 c. 4. 

Translation.—But after the Lord Christ had suf 
fered, and risen from the dead, and sent his disciples 
for preaching, Pilate, the president of the province 
of Palestine, to Tiberius the emperor and the sen¬ 
ate related concerning the passion and resurrection 
of Christ, what things openly through him had been 
done, or through his disciples in his name, and that 
in the growing faith of many he was believed to be 
God—etc., etc. Orosius, Book 7, chapter 4. 



LARDNER’S REMARKS ON THE 


ACTS OF PILATE. 


Of the knowledge which the emperor Tiberius Caesar had concern¬ 
ing our Saviour Jesus Christ, the following remarks are made by Dr. 
Nathaniel Lardner, which may be found in his work, “The Credibil¬ 
ity of The Gospel History,” in the chapter on “Testimonies of Ancient 
Heathens,”—Vol. vi, p. 605, et seq. 

The Acts of Pontius Pilate , and his letter to Ti¬ 
berius. 

“Justin Martyr, in his first Apology, which was 
presented to the emperor Antoninus Pious, and the 
Senate of Rome, about the year 140, having men¬ 
tioned our Saviour’s crucifixion and some of the 
circumstances of it, adds: ‘And that these things 
were so done you may know from the Acts made in 
the time of Pontius Pilate.’ 

“Afterwards in the same Apology, having men¬ 
tioned some of our Lord’s miracles, such as healing 
diseases and raising the dead, he adds ; ‘And that 
these things were done by him you may know from 
the Acts made in the time of Pontius Pilate.’ 

“Tertullian, in his Apology, about the year 200, 
having spoken of pur Saviour’s crucifixion and re- 



294 


lardner’s remarks. 


surrection, and his appearance to his disciples, who 
were ordained by him to preach the gospel over the 
world, goes on: ‘Of all these things, relating to 
Christ, Pilate, in his conscience a Christian, sent an 
account to Tiberius, then emperor.’ 

“In another chapter or section of his Apology,, 
nearer the beginning, he speaks to this purpose: 
‘There was an ancient decree that no one should be 
received for a deity unless he was first approved by 
the senate. Tiberius, in whose time the Christian 
religion had its rise, having received from Palestine 
in Syria an account of such things as manifested 
our Saviour’s divinity, proposed to the senate, and 
giving his own vote as first in his favor, that he 
should be placed among the gods. The senate re¬ 
fused, because he himself had declined that honor/ 

“ 'Nevertheless the emperor persisted in his own 
opinion, and ordered that if any accused the Chris¬ 
tians they should be punished.’ And then adds : 
‘Search, says he, your own writings, and you will 
there find that Nero was the first emperor who ex¬ 
ercised any acts of severity toward the Christians, 
because they were then very numerous at Rome.’ 

“It is fit that we should now observe what notice 
Eusebius takes of these things in his Ecclesiastical 
History. It is to this effect: ‘When the wonder¬ 
ful resurrection of our Saviour, and his ascension to 
heaven, were in the mouths of all men, it being an 
ancient custom for the governors of provinces to 
write the emperor, and give him an account of new 
and remarkable occurrences, that he might not be 
ignorant of anything; our Saviour’s resurrection 


lardner’s remarks. 


295 


being much talked of throughout all of Palestine, 
Pilate informed the emperor of it, as likewise of his 
miracles, which he had heard of, and that being 
raised up after he had been put to death, he was al¬ 
ready believed by many to be a god. And it is 
said that Tiberius referred the matter to the senate , 
but that they refused their consent, under a pretence 
that it had not been first approved of by them ; 
there being an ancient law that no one should be 
deified among the Romans without an order of the 
senate ; but, indeed, because the saving and divine 
doctrine of the gospel needed not to be confirmed 
by human judgment and authority. However, Ti¬ 
berius persisted in his former sentiment, and allowed 
not anything to be done that was prejudicial to the 
doctrine of Christ. These things are related by 
Tertullian, a man famous on other accounts, and 
particularly for his skill in the Roman laws. I sav 
he speaks thus in his Apology for the Christians, 
written by him in the Roman tongue, but since (in 
the days of Eusebius) translated into the Greek.’ 
His words are these : ‘There was an ancient decree 
that no one should be consecrated as a deity by the 
emperor, unless he was first approved of by the 
senate. Marcus Aemilius knows this by his god 
Alburnus. This is to our purpose, forasmuch as 
among you divinity is bestowed by human judg¬ 
ment. ’ 

“‘And if God does not please man. he shall not 
be God. And, according to this way of thinking, 
man must be propitious to God. Tiberius, there¬ 
fore, in whose time the Christian name was first 


296 


lardner’s remarks. 


known in the world, having received an account of 
this doctrine out of Palistine, where it began, com¬ 
municated that account to the senate ; giving his 
own suffrage at the same time in favor of it. But 
the senate rejected it, because it had not been ap¬ 
proved by themselves. ‘Nevertheless the emperor 
persisted in his judgment, and threatened death to 
such as should accuse the Christians.’ ‘Which,’ 
adds Eusebius, ‘could not be other than the disposal 
of Divine Providence, that the doctrine of the gos¬ 
pel, which was then in its beginning, might be 
preached all over the world without molestation.’ 
So Eusebius. 

‘•Divers exceptions have been mad'i by learned 
moderns to the original testimonies of Justin Martvr 
and Tertullian.” ‘Is there any likelihood,’ say they 
•that Pilate should write such things to Tiberius 
concerning a man whom he had condemned to 
death? And if he had written them, is it probable 
that Tiberius should propose to the senate to have 
a man put among the gods upon the bare relation 
of a governor of a province? And if he had pro¬ 
posed it, who can make a doubt that the senate 
would not have immediately complied? So that 
though we dare not say that this narration is abso¬ 
lutely false, yet it must be reckoned as doubtful.’ So 
says Du Pin. 

“These and other difficulties shall now be consid¬ 
ered. 

“Now, therefore, I shall mention some observa¬ 
tions : 

“In the first place, I shall observe that Justin 


lardner’s remarks. 


297 


Martyr and Tertullian are early writers of good re¬ 
pute. That is an observation of bishop Pierson. 
These testimonies are taken from the most public 
writings, Apologies for the Christian religion, pre¬ 
sented, or at least proposed and recommended to 
the emperor and senate of Rome, or to magistrates 
of high authority and great distinction in the Roman 
empire. Secondly : It certainly was the custom of 
governors of provinces to compose Acts or memoirs 
or commentaries of the remarkable occurrences in 
the places where they presided. 

In the time of the first Roman emperors there were 
Acts of the Senate, Acts of the City, or People of 
Rome, Acts of other cities, and Acts of governors of 
provinces. Of all these we can discern clear proofs 
and frequent mention in ancient writers of the best 
credit. Julius Caesar ordered that Acts of the Sen¬ 
ate, as well as daily Acts of the People should be 
published’ See Sueton. Jul. Cajs. c. 20. 

“Augustus forbade publishing Acts of the Senate. 

“There was an officer, himself a senator, whose 
province it was to compose those Acts. 

“The Acts of the Senate must have been large and 
voluminous, containing not only the question pro¬ 
posed, or referred to the senate by the consul, or 
the emperor, but also the debates and speeches of 
the senators. 

“The Acts of the People, or City, were journals 
or registers of remarkable births, marriages, divor¬ 
ces, deaths, proceedings in courts of judicature, and 
other interesting affairs, and some other things be¬ 
low the dignity of history. 


298 


lardner's remarks. 


“To these Acts of each kind Roman authors fre¬ 
quently had recource for information. 

“There were such Acts or registers at other- 
places besides Rome, particularly at Antium. 
From them Suetonius learned the day and place of 
the birth of Caligula, about which were other uncer¬ 
tain reports. And he speaks of those Acts as public 
authorities, and therefore more decisive and satisfac¬ 
tory than some other accounts. 

“There were also Acts of the governors of provin¬ 
ces, registering all remarkable transactions and oc¬ 
currences. 

“Justin Martyr and Tertullian could not be mista¬ 
ken about this ; and the learned bishop of Caesarea 
admits the truth of what they say. And in the time 
of the persecuting emperor Maximin, about the year 
of Christ 307, the heathen people forged Acts of Pi¬ 
late, derogatory to the honor of our Savior, which 
were dilligently spread abroad, to unsettle Chris¬ 
tians, or discourage them in the profession of their 
faith. Of this we are informed by Eusebius in his 
Ecclesiastical History. 

Thirdly : It was customary for the governors of 
provinces to send to the emperor an account of re¬ 
markable transactions in places where thev presi¬ 
ded. 

“So thought the learned Eusebuns as we have seen. 

“And Pliny’s letters to Trajan still extant, are a 
proof of it. Philo speaks of the Acts or Memoirs of 
Alexandria sent to Caligula, which that emperor 
read with more eagerness and satisfaction than any¬ 
thing else. 


lardner’s remarks- 


299 


“Fourthly : It has been said to be very unlikely 
that Pilate should write such things to Tiberius, 
concerning a man whom he [Pilate] had con¬ 
demned to death. 

“To which it is easy to reply, that if he wrote 
to Tiberius at all, it is very likely that he should 
speak favorably and honorably of the Savior. 

“That Pilate passed sentence of condemnation 
upon our Lord very unwillingly, and not without a 
sort of compulsion, appears from the history of the 
evangelist: Matt xxvii. ; Mark xv. ; Luke xxiii. ; 
John xviii. Pilate was hard pressed. The rulers 
of the Jews vehemently accused our Lord to him. 
They said they had found him perverting the nation, 
and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that 
himself is Christ, a king, and the like; and all 
without effect for awhile. 

“Pilate still sought for expedients to set Jesus at 
liberty. 

“As his reluctance had been very manifest and 
public in a court of judicature, in the chief city of 
the nation at the time of one of their great festivals, 
it is highly probable that when he sent to Rome he 
should make some apology for his conduct. Nor 
could anything be more proper than to allege some 
of our Saviour’s miracles which he had heard of, 
and to give an account to the zeal of those who pro¬ 
fessed faith in him after his ignominious crucifixion r 
and openly asserted that he had risen from the dead 
and ascended to heaven. 

“Pilate would not dare in such a report to write 
falsehood, nor to conceal the most material circum- 


300 


lardner’s remarks. 


stances of the case about which he was writing. At 
the trial he publicly declared his innocence: and 
told the Jews several times ‘that he found no fault in 
him at all.’ 

“And when he was going to pronounce the sen¬ 
tence of condemnation, ‘he took water and washed 
his hands before the multitude, saying : ‘I am inno¬ 
cent of the blood of this just person : ‘See ye to it.’ 
Matt, xxvii, 24. 

“When he wrote to Tiberius he would very natu¬ 
rally say something of our Lord’s wonderful resur¬ 
rection and ascension, which were much talked of 
and believed by many, with which he could not be 
possibly unacquainted. The mention of these things 
would be the best vindication of his inward persua¬ 
sion, and his repeated declarations of our Lord’s 
innocence upon trial notwithstanding the loud 
clamors and united accusations of the Jewish people 
and their rulers. 

“Pilate, as has been said several times, passed 
condemnation upon Jesus very unwillingly, and not 
until after long trial. 

“When he passed sentence upon him he gave or¬ 
ders that this title or inscription should be put npon 
the cross: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the 
Jews.’ 

“When he had expired, application was made to 
Pilate, by Joseph of Arithmathea, an honorable 
counsellor, that the body might be taken down and 
buried. To which he consented ; but not till assu¬ 
rance from the centurian that he had been sometime 
dead. The next day some of the priests and phari- 


lardner’s remarks. 


301 


sees came to him saying; ‘Sir, we remember that 
that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three 
days I will rise again. ‘Command, therefore, that 
the sepulchre be made sure, until the third day, lest 
his disciples come by night and steal him away, and 
say unto the people, He is risen from the dead. 
‘So the last error shall be worse than the first.’ 

“Pilate said nnto them: ‘Ye have a watch; go 
your way, make it sure as you can. ’ So they went 
and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and 
setting a watch. 

“Whilst they were at the sepnlchre there was a 
‘great earthquake,’ the stone was rolled away by an 
Angel, ‘whose countenance was like lightning, and 
for fear of whom the guards did shake and become 
as dead men.’ Some of the guards went down into 
the City, and showed unto the chief priests all the 
things that were done. 

“Nor can there be any doubt that these things 
came also to the governor’s ears. Pilate, therefore 
was furnished with materials of great importance 
relating to this case, very proper to be sent to the 
emperor. And very probably he did send them, for 
he could do no otherwise. 

“Fifthly : it is said, ‘ That if Pilate had sent such 
things to Tiberius, it is nevertheless very unlikely 
that Tiberius should propose to the senate that our 
Saviour might be put among the gods, because that 
emperor had little or no regard for things of relig¬ 
ion.’ 

“But it is easy to answei that such observations 
are of little or no importance, Few princes are able 


302 


lardner’s remarks. 


to preserve uniformity in the whole of their conduct, 
and it is certain that Tiberius varied from himself 
upon many occasions and in different parts of his life. 

“Sixthly: it is further urged, that if Tiberius had 
proposed the thing to the senate, there can be no 
doubt that the senate would have immediately com¬ 
plied. 

“But neither is this difficulty insuperable ; for we 
are assured by Suetonius that Tiberius let several 
things be decided by the senate contrary to his own 
opinion, without showing much uneasiness 

(It must be observed here that Dr. Lardner is 
very copious in quotations from the best authorities 
in proof of all his statements. The reader is re¬ 
ferred to Vol. VI of his great works, pages 605-620, 
where will be found these quotations in foot-notes 
too lengthy to be transcribed here.) 

“Seventhly: The right interpretation of the words 
of Tertullian will be of use to remove difficulties and 
to confirm the truth of the account. 

“I have translated them in this manner : ‘When 
Tiberius referred the matter to the senate, that our 
Lord should be placed in the number of gods, the 
senate refused, because he had himself declined that 
honor.’ 

“The words are understood to the like purpose by 
Pearson. 

“There is another sense, which is that of the 
Greek translation of Tertullian’s Apology, made 
use of by Eusebius : ‘The senate refused because 
it had not itself approved of it.’ But that sense, if 
it be any sense at all, is absurd, and therefore un- 


LARDNER’s REMARKS' 


303 


likely. If none beside the senate had a right to 
consecrate any for the deity, yet certainly the con¬ 
sul or the emperor might refer such a thing to that 
venerable body. According to Tertullian’s account 
the whole is in a fair way of legal proceeding.” 
[And it may be remarked here that Tertullian, be¬ 
ing well versed in Roman law, would hardly have 
passed b}^ a blunder here or committed one in any¬ 
thing wherein he may have had to do with the 
statement.] 

“By virtue of an ancient law, no one might be 
reckoned a god, (at least by the Romans,) without 
the approbation of the senate. Tiberius having been 
informed of some extraordinary things concerning 
Jesus, referred it to the senate, that he also might 
be placed in the number of deities. Was it possible 
after this that the Senate should refuse it, under a 
pretense that Tiberius had bestowed divinity upon 
Jesus without their consent, when he had done no 
such thing, and at the very time was referring it to 
their judgment in the old legal way? 

“Le Clerc objects that the true reading in Tertul- 
lian is not—Non quia in se non probaverat, but quia 
non ipse probaverat. 

“Be it so. The meaning is the same. Ipse must 
intend the emperor, not the senate. The other 
sense is absurd, and next to a contradiction, and 
therefore not likely to be right, and at the same time 
it is a rude and needless affront. The other interpre¬ 
tation represents a handsome compliment, not with¬ 
out foundation. For it is very true that Tiberius 
had himself declined receiving divine honors. 


304 


LARDNER'S REMARKS. 


“Eighthly: It has been objected that Tiberius 
was unfriendly to the Jewish people, and therefore 
it must be reckoned very improbable that he should 
be willing to put a man who was a Jew among the 
gods. 

“But there is little or no ground for this objec¬ 
tion. It was obviated long ago in the first part of 
this work, where beside other things it is said : In 
the reign of Tiberius the Jewish people were well 
used. They were indeed banished out of Italy by 
an edict; but it was for a misdemeanor committed 
by some villians of that nation. The great hard¬ 
ship was that many innocent persons suffered beside 
the guilty. 

“Upon other occasions Tiberius showed the Jews 
all the favor that could be desired, especially after 
the death of Sejanus; and is much applauded for it 
by Philo. 

“Ninthly : Still it is urged, ‘Nothing can be more 
absurd than to suppose that Tiberius would receive 
for a deity a man who taught the worship of one 
God only, and whose religion decried all other dei¬ 
ties as mere fiction.’* 


*The absurdity of this objection, “that Tiberius was opposed to 
the idea of one God only” will appear very fully to the reader of 
our day when he turns to the evidences that have come forward to 
the contrary through late research. The religious ideas of the Jews 
had gained quite a hold at Rome at the time Tiberius lived; and it is 
well known that soon after, even members of the imperial family did 
become Christians. 

In the chapters on Annas and Caiaphas and in the sketch of Ti¬ 
berius given in this volume enough may be gathered by the reader to 



lardner’s remarks. 


305 


“Upon which I must say, nothing can be more 
absurd than this objection. Tertullian does not sup¬ 
pose Tiberius to be well acquainted with the Chris¬ 
tian religion, our Saviour’s doctrine. 

“All he says is, that, having heard of some ex¬ 
traordinary things concerning him, he had a desire 
to put him among the Roman deities. 

“Tenthly ; Tertullian proceeds : ‘Nevertheless the 
emperor persisted in his opinion, and ordered that 
if any accused the Christians they should be pun¬ 
ished.’ This was very natural. Though the sen¬ 
ate would not put Jesus in the number of deities, 
the emperor was still of opinion that it might have 
been done. 

“And he determined to provide by an edict for 
the safety of those who professed a high regard for 
Jesus Christ. Which edict, as Eusebius reasonably 
supposes, was of use for securing the free preach¬ 
ing of the gospel in many places. 

••But the authority of that edict would cease at 
the emperor’s demise, if not sooner. Unfortunately 
it could not be in force, or have any great effect, for 
a long season. 

“Nor need we consider the ordering such an 
edict as in favor of the Christians as an incredible 
thing, if we observe what Philo says, who assures 


show how far Jewish religious thought had supplanted old pagan 
notions at Rome- 

No reader who desires a full knowledge of this field of history 
should fail to see Prof. F. Huidekoper’s “Judiasm at Rome B. c. 76 
to a. D. 140.” 



306 


lardner’s remarks. 


us that ‘Tiberius gave orders to all the governors 
of provinces, to protect the Jews in the cities where 
they lived in the observation of their own rights 
and customs ; and that they should bear hard on 
none of them, but such as were unpeaceable and 
transgressed the laws of the State.’ 

“Nor is it impossible that the Christians should 
partake of the like civilities, they being considered 
as a sect of the Jews. And it is allowed that the 
Roman empire did not openly persecute the Chris¬ 
tians, till they became so numerous that the heathen 
people were apprehensive of the total overthrow of 
their religion. 

“In the eleventh place, says a learned and judi¬ 
cious writer, Tt is probable that Pilate, who had no 
enmity toward Christ, and accounted him a man 
unjustly accused and an extraordinary person, might 
be moved by the wonderful circumstances attending 
and following his death, to hold him in veneration, 
and perhaps to think him a hero and the son of some 
deity. It is possible that he might send a narrative, 
such as he thought most convenient, of these trans¬ 
actions to Tiberius : but it is not at all likely that Ti¬ 
berius proposed to the Senate that Christ should be 
deified, and that the senate rejected it, and that 
Tiberius continued favorably disposed toward Christ, 
and that he threatened to punish those who should 
molest and accuse the Christians.’ ‘Observe also,’ 
says the same learned writer, ‘that the Jews perse¬ 
cuted the apostles, and slew Stephen, and that Saul 
made havoc of the church, entering into every 
house, and hailing men and women, committing 



lardner’s remarks. 


307 


them to prison, and that Pilate connived at all this 
"violence, and was not afraid of the resentment of 
Tiberius on that account. ’ 

“Admitting the truth of all these particulars just 
mentioned, it does not follow that no orders were 
given by Tiberius for the protection of the followers 
of Jesus. 

“For no commands of princes are obeyed by all 
men everywhere. They are oftentimes transgressed. 

“Nor was any place more likely than Judea, 
where the enmity of many against the disciples of 
Jesus was so great. Nor need it be supposed that 
Tiberius was very intent to have this order strictly 
regarded. For he was upon many occasions very 
indolent and dilatory: and he was well known to 
be so. Moreover the death of Stephen was tumul¬ 
tuous, and not an act of the Jewish council. And 
further, the influence of Pilate in that country was 
not now at its full height. We perceive from the 
history of our Lord’s trial before him, as recorded 
in the gospels, that he stood in fear of the Jews. 

“He was apprehensive that, if he did not gratify 
them in that point, they might draw up a long list 
of maladministrations for the emperor’s view. His 
condemnation of Jesus at the importunity of the 
Jews, contrary to his own judgment and inclina¬ 
tion, declared to them more than once, was a point 
gained; and his government must have been ever 
after much weakened by so mean a condescension. 
And that Pilate’s influence in the province continued 
to decline is manifest, in that the people of it pre¬ 
vailed at last to have him removed in a very igno- 


308 lardner's remarks. 

minious manner by Vitellius, president of Syria. 

“Pilate was removed from his government before 
the Passover in the year of Christ 36. After which 
there was no procurator or other person with the 
power of life and death, in Judea, before the ascen¬ 
sion of Herod Agrippa, in the year 41. 

“In that space of time the Jews would take an 
unusual license, and gratify their own malicious dis¬ 
positions, beyond what they could otherwise have 
done, without control. 

“Twelfth : Some have objected, that Tertullian is 
so absurd as to speak of Christians in the time of 
Tiberius ; though it be certain that the followers of 
Jesus were not known by that denomination till some 
time afterwards. 

“But this is a trifling objection. Tertullian in¬ 
tends no more by Christians than followers of Jesus, 
by whatever name they were known or distin¬ 
guished ; whether that of Nazarenes, or Galileans, 
or disciples. 

“And it is undoubted, that the Christian religion 
had its rise in the reign of Tiberius : though they, 
who professed to believe in Jesus, as risen from the 
dead and ascended to heaven, were not called 
Christians till some time afterwards. 

“So at the beginning of the paragraph he says, 
‘There was an ancient law that no god should be 
consecrated by the emperor, unless it was first ap¬ 
proved by the senate.’ Nevertheless Tertullian was 
not so ignorant as not to know that there were not 
any emperors when the ancient decree was passed. 

“His meaning is, that no one should be deified by 


Gardner’s remarks. 


309 


any man, no not by a consul or emperor, without 
the approbation of the senate. 

“Finally, We do not suppose that Tiberius un¬ 
derstood the doctrine of the Saviour, or that he was 
at all inclined to be a Christian. 

“Nor did Tertullian intend to say any such thing, 
for immediately after the passage first cited from 
him, he adds: ‘But the Cassars themselves would 
have believed in Jesus Christ, if they had not been 
necessary for the world, or if Christians could have 
been Caesars.’ 

“Grotius appears to have rightly understood the 
importance of these passages of Tertullian ; whose 
note upon Matthew xxiv. 2, I have transcribed be¬ 
low.” [The reader is referred to Vol. VL of Lard- 
ner’s Works, where he will find the notes of this 
learned writer, as quoted from various ancients and 
moderns, in proof of all he has brought forward in 
these lengthy arguments, and which can not be 
transcribed here. — Ed . ] 

“Admit, then, the right interpretation of Tertuli- 
an, and it may be allowed that what he says is not 
incredible or improbable. The Romans had almost 
innumerable deities, and yet they frequently added 
to that number and adopted new. As deifications 
were very frequent, Tiberius might have indulged 
a thought of placing Jesus among the established 
deities without intending to derogate from the wor¬ 
ship or honor of those who were already received. 

“But the senate was not in a humor to gratify 
him. 

“And the reason assigned is, because the emperor 


310 


lardner’s remarks. 


himself had declined that honor . which is so plaus¬ 
ible a pretense, and so fine a compliment, that we 
can not easily suppose it to be Tertullian’s own in¬ 
vention : which, therefore, gives credibility to his 
account. 

“Eusebius, though he acknowledged the overru¬ 
ling providence of God in the favorable disposition 
of Tiberius toward the first followers of Jesus, by 
which means the Christian religion in its infancv 
was propagated over the world with less molesta¬ 
tion, does also say, at the beginning of the chapter 
quoted, ‘The senate refused their consent to the 
emperor’s proposal, under a pretence that they had 
not been first asked, there being an ancient law, 
that no one should be deified without the approba¬ 
tion of the senate; but, indeed,’ adds he, ‘because 
the saving and divine doctrine of the gospel needed 
not to be ratified by human judgment and authori¬ 
ty*’ 

Chrysostom’s observation is to like purpose, but 
with some inaccuracies. It is likely that he was 
not at all acquainted with Tertullian ; and he was 
no admirer of Eusebius. Perhaps he builds upon 
general tradition only. ‘The Roman senate,’ says 
he, ‘had the power of nominating and decreeing 
who should be gods. When, therefore, all things 
concerning Christ had been published, he who was 
the governor of the Jewish nation sent to them to 
know if they would be pleased to appoint him also 
to be a god. But they refused, being offended and 
provoked, that before their decree and judgment 
had been obtained, the power of the crucified one 


lardner’s remarks. 


311 


had shined out and had attracted all the world to 
the worship of him. But, by the overruling provi¬ 
dence of God, this was brought to pass against 
their will, that the divinity of Christ might not be 
established by human appointment and that he 
might not be reckoned one of the many who were 
deified by them.’ 

‘‘Some of which, as he proceeds to show, had 
been of infamous characters. 

“I shall now transcribe below in his own words 
what Orosius, in the fifth century, says of this 
matter, that all my readers may have it at once be¬ 
fore them without looking farther for it.” [This 
quotation from Orosius will be found in the “Testi¬ 
mony of the Fathers,” under the title, “Testimony 
of Orosius ,” see page 292 .—Ed.] 

“And I refer to Zonoras and Nicephoras. The 
former only quotes Eusebius, and transcribes into 
his Annals the chapter of his Ecclesiastical History 
quoted by me. Nor has Nicephoras done much 
more.” 

Thus we have at much length quoted from this 
very learned author the arguments on this topic, 
and we only add that these arguments are sus¬ 
tained by quotations from Latin, Greek, French and 
English authorities w r ho have always stood very 
high in this department of research. —Ed. 


SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF 

JUSTIN, TERTULLIAN, EUSEBIUS AND TISCHEN- 
DORF. 


Some account of the lives of Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Euse¬ 
bius, whose writings in relation to the “Acts of Pilate” are given in 
the foregoing pages, as also a sketch of the late eminent biblical 
archaeologist Constantine Tischendorf, may be of much interest to the 
reader of this volume, in laying before him the character of the men 
upon whose authority rests the value of the singularly interesting 
documents that form the basis of the work. 


LIFE OF JUSTIN. 


Justin, surnamed the philosopher, or more gener¬ 
ally the Martyr, of whom Eusebius says that he 
overshadowed all the great men who illuminated 
the second century, by the splendour of his name, 
was born about the year A. d. 100. 

He was the son of a wealthy Greek, Priscus, who 
had in all probability come to reside at Flavia Ne- 
apolis (erected on the site of the ancient Sichem,) 
in Samaria with the Roman colony sent by Vespa¬ 
sian to the city which bore his name. He tells us 
in one of his works that he travelled much in his 




LIFE OF JUSTIN. 


313 


youth, and studied ardently the various systems of 
philosophy prevalent in his day, searching after 
some knowledge that should satisfy the cravings of 
his soul. 

The myths and absurd worship of the heathen 
had failed to satisfy the youthful and longing soul, 
to know God and the relations of God to man ; and 
in turn Stoic and Peripatetic, Pythagorean and Pla- 
tonist were examined, to set his mind at rest upon 
the vital question. 

By the Stoic he was told that in philosophical 
speculation the subject which he seemed to consider 
the most important was only of subordinate rank. 
By the Pythagorean he was rejected outright, be¬ 
cause he confessed himself ignorant of music, astron¬ 
omy, and geometry, which that school considered 
a necessary introduction to the study of philoso¬ 
phy ; and so he turned in despair to the Platonists, 
at this time in high repute in the place of his resi¬ 
dence. 

At last he seemed to have gained the haven of 
peace: the Platonic doctrine of ideas could not fail 
to inspire Justin with the hope that he “should soon 
have the intuition of God,” for this is the aim of 
Platonic philosophy. “Under the influence of this 
notion,” says Justin himself, “it occurred to me 
that I would withdraw to some solitary place, far 
from the turmoil of the world, and there in perfect 
self-collection give myself to my own contempla¬ 
tions in a chosen spot by the sea-side.” Whether 
Justin still resided at this time at Flavia Neapolis 
by the Dead Sea, or whether by the Valley of the 


314 


LIFE OF JUSTIN. 


Jordan north of this sea, or some unfrequented spot 
of Lake Genesareth, or whether at Ephesus he re¬ 
sided, is a matter of dispute. But whether one or 
the other, it was in this resort by the shore of the 
resounding sea—attracted to it by the grandeur of 
the object he was seeking to solve, and the loveli¬ 
ness of the spot—that we find him one day while 
wrapt in thought, pacing up and down by the side 
of the sea, accosted by a man of venerable aspect, 
sage and grave ; and soon the two are engaged in 
earnest converse on the subject ever uppermost in 
young Justin’s mind. Somewhat enamored of the 
Platonic philosophy, he argues in its favor with the 
appositely present senior, and contends that at some 
future day it will conduct him into that nearer ac¬ 
quaintance with God, or, in the Platonists’ term, 
afford him the “vision of divinity.” 

But the meek old man, who is a Christian, con¬ 
tends that the goal which he is seeking to gain can 
not be reached by any philosophical school or un¬ 
aided mind, even of the highest order ; the fallacy 
of Plato is proved by some two or three points of 
doctrine belonging to that system ; and finally the 
doubting and indocile disciple is visited with the 
curt and not gentle apostrophe, “You are a mere 
dealer in words, but no lover of action and truth ; 
your aim is to be not a practicer of good, but a 
clever disputant, a cunning sophist.” Once more 
the inquiring youth is baffled in his attempt to lay 
hold of the truth : he is again convinced that even 
from the foremost of heathen philosophers he cannot 
obtain the pearl for which he is seeking so earnestly. 


LIFE OF JUSTIN. 


315 


But with this intelligence there comes also the 
direction, 4 -Search the Scriptures ; study the He¬ 
brew prophets ; men who, guided by the Spirit of 
God, saw and revealed the truth, and even foretold 
events future to their day ; read the last heroic words 
of the disciples of him who came to raise a fallen 
world, and restore it to eternal and imperishable fe¬ 
licity.” “Pray,” ended the venerable Christian, 
‘•that the gates of light may be opened to thee, for 
none can perceive and comprehend these things ex¬ 
cept God and his Christ grant them understanding.” 

Justin was impressed; he had often heard the 
Platonists calumniate the Christians, but he had al¬ 
ways discredited the statements. 

He had frequently observed the tranquility and 
fortitude with which these followers of Jesus en¬ 
countered death and all other evils which appear 
terrible to man ; and he could never condemn as 
profligates those who could so patiently endure. He 
had long believed them innocent of the crimes im¬ 
puted to these consistent martyrs. He was now 
prepared to think that they held the truth. 

He reflected on the w r ords of the venerable stran¬ 
ger, and was convinced that they inculcated the 
only “safe and true philosophy.” 

From this time his personal history becomes ob¬ 
scure, as he has but little to relate of himself here¬ 
after, and as from other sources we can gather but 
little on which we can depend. 

Certain it is that he at once enlisted in active ser¬ 
vice in the newly espoused cause. 

Retaining the philosopher’s garb he ardently de- 


316 


LIFE OF JUSTIN. 


voted himself to the propagation of Christianity. 
By writing, by travel, and by all means in his 
power, like Paul the great Gentile apostle, feeling 
himself a debtor to all men, of every race and rank 
in life, he felt his obligation to teach them of his 
new Master, and the way of salvation. 

Whether at Ephesus amid a little group of Jews, 
or before the emperors of Rome, we see him using 
all his knowledge of scripture, and all his acquire¬ 
ments in philosophy, to convince the world that 
Jesus is divine. 

He made all his knowledge of philosophy subser¬ 
vient to this one purpose. He visited many places 
in order to diffuse the knowledge of Christ. On 
his second visit to Rome he was apprehended and 
brought before the tribunal of Rusticus who was 
prefect of the city. And as he refused to sacrifice 
to the gods he was sentenced to be scourged and 
beheaded—which sentence was carried into imme¬ 
diate effect. Thus perished the ablest of the apolo¬ 
gists of the second century. 

We can not better close this brief sketch than by 
quoting from Fisher’s “Apostolic Fathers:” 

“Justin’s praises are sounded by the whole early 
church. 

“Writers like Irenaeus and Tertullian borrowed 
very largely from his works ; later fathers appeal 
to him as to one speaking with authority ; no other 
name so great as his intervenes between John and 
Origen. He appears in the midst of that cultured 
and curious, but hollow and heartless second cen¬ 
tury, like an old Hebrew prophet waking after a 


LIFE OF JUSTIN. 


31T 

sleep of centuries, assuming the philosopher’s cloak 
as the nearest approach to his old sheepskin mantle. 
He denounces woes upon Cajsar if he does not re¬ 
pent, as boldly as Elijah rebuked the sins of Ahab. 

“He feels through every fiber of his being that 
he is called to utter the truth of God, and so speak¬ 
ing he knows no fear. And yet, with all his pro¬ 
phetic boldness, Justin was a philosopher, and in 
spite of occasional narrow reasonings, he was a 
broad thinker. 

Of his works of undoubted genuineness are his 
two “Apologies” addressed to the emperors, and 
his “Dialogue with Trypho.” It is in the first of 
his apologies that he alludes twice to the “Acts of 
Pilate”—which allusions in their context are given 
in the foregoing “Testimonies of the Fathers.” 





LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 


Tertullian is the most ancient of the Latin fathers 
whose works are extant, and one of the most note¬ 
worthy personages belonging to the early church. 
Our knowledge of his personal history is extremely 
limited. He was born at Carthage in a. d. 160, or 
near that date. His father was a Roman centurion 
in the service of the proconsul of Africa. His natu¬ 
ral endowments were great, and they were supple¬ 
mented by a comprehensive course of studies whose 
fruit appears in the wealth of historical, legal, phil¬ 
osophical, physical and antiquarian elements con¬ 
tained in his writings. 

He was destined for the civil service of the empire, 
and was accordingly trained in Roman jurispru¬ 
dence, and the art of forensic eloquence. He is de¬ 
scribed by Eusebius as one of the most highly es¬ 
teemed Romans. His mode of argumentation and 
terminology everywhere reveal the legal turn of his 
mind, and his writings in many places throw light 
on disputed points of the Roman civil law. Tertul¬ 
lian was converted to Christianity'' when he was be¬ 
tween thirty and forty years of age, and he imme¬ 
diately became its fearless champion against pagans 
Jews, and heretics—especially Gnostics. With a 
sternness of nature becoming the son of a roman cen¬ 
turion, he combined a fierceness of temper befitting 



LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 


319 


his Punic birth. He has been fitly termed the 
Christian Hannibal; and as the son of Hamilcar 
vowed eternal hatred to the Roman name, so this 
Carthaginian seemed upon becoming a Christian, 
to vow eternal hatred to whatever was anti-Chris¬ 
tian. 

He was the first religious teacher after the apostles 
who attained to a clear recognition of the mighty con¬ 
trast between sin and grace, and who presented it in 
all its force to the mind of the church. He was mar¬ 
ried but nevertheless entered the ranks of the clergy. 
Jerome says that he was first a presbyter of the 
Catholic Church, but his own writings do not deter¬ 
mine whether he was a member of the spiritual or¬ 
der prior to his lapse into Montanism or not. It is 
certain, however, that he sojourned for a time in 
Rome. 

The transition to Montanism occurred a few 
years after Tertullian’s conversion, and about A. D. 
202. The act doubtless had its origin in his eccen¬ 
tric disposition and vigorous moral views, which 
predisposed him to regard that heresy with favor 
and to dislike the Roman Church. Jerome attri¬ 
butes it to personal motives excited by envy of the 
Roman clergy, and modern writers have ascribed 
it to disappointed ambition. We know, however, that 
the penetential discipline of the church was admin¬ 
istered at Rome with exceeding laxity, and that 
such indifference was an abomination in the eyes of 
Tertullian. Assuredly he did not regard Montanus 
as the Paraclete. He recognized in him only an 
inspired organ of the Spirit. He, rather than Mon 


320 


LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 


tanus, became the head of the Montanistic party it* 
Africa, giving to their undefined views a theological 
character and a conceded influence over the life of" 
the church, and establishing it on foundations suffici¬ 
ently firm to enable it to protract its being down to the 
fifth century. The assertion that he returned to the 
Catholic church before he died is sometimes made but 
can not be substantiated ; and the continued existence 
of the Tertullianists would seem to contradict the 
assumption. 

As a writer Tertullian was exceedingly fresh and 
vigorous, but also angular, abrupt and impetuous. 
He was a speculative thinker, though the bitter op¬ 
ponent of philosophy. His aspiring mind sought 
in vain for adequate language in which to express 
itself, and struggled constantly to force the ideas of 
Christianity within the forms of the Latin tongue. 

His style thus became exceedingly forcible, ner¬ 
vous, vivid, concise and pregnant. His adversaries 
were assailed without mercy, and with all the 
weapons of truth and of art; and they generally 
appear in his writings in ridiculous plight. He was 
the pioneer of orthodox anthropology and soteriology 
the teacher of Cyprian and forerunner of Augustine,, 
in the latter of whom his spirit was reproduced in 
twofold measure, though without its eccentricities 
and angularities. It is possible to trace resemblan¬ 
ces. also, between him and Luther with respect to 
native vigor of mind, profound earnestness, polem¬ 
ical relentlesness. etc. ; but the father lacked the 
child-like amiability of the Reformer, who was both 
lion and a lamb. 


LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 


321 


Tertullian’s writings are usually of brief extent, 
but they traverse nearly all fields of the religious life, 
and they constitute the most prolific source for the 
history of the church and of doctrines in his time. 
No satisfactory classification of them can be execu¬ 
ted, because but few of them afford the necessary 
data on which to base a scheme :- 

1. His Catholic writings, or such as defend 
orthodox Christianity against unbelievers and he¬ 
retics. Most of these works date from the Montan- 
ist era of the author’s life. 

2. Apologies against Pagans ond "Jews. —First 
of all the Apologeticus addressed to the Roman 
magistracy a. d. 198, and forming one of the.best 
rebuttals of the charges raised by the heathen of the 
time against Christianity. Similar in character are 
the Ad Nationes Libri II. In De Testimonio An¬ 
imas the author develops an argument for the unity 
of God and the reality of a future state from the in¬ 
nate perceptions and feelings of the soul. In the 
work Ad Scapulam he remonstrates with the Afri¬ 
can governor of that name who was bitterly per¬ 
secuting the Christians. The Adversus Judaso Liber 
draws from the old Testament prophets the proof 
that the Messiah has appeared in the person of 
Jesus of Nazareth. 

3. De Praescriftione Hereticorum , or rules to 
be observed by Christians in dealing with heretics. 
—In this work the argument involves as its funda¬ 
mental principle the idea that the heretics, as inno¬ 
vators, are under the necessity of proving their po¬ 
sitions, while the church is assured in its sole right 



322 


LIFE OF TERTULLIAN. 


to the allegiance of Christendom by the uninterrup¬ 
ted current of Apostolic tradition and an unimpaired 
succession, so that it need not enter into controver¬ 
sy with heretics. His most extensive and learned 
polemico-dogmatical work is his Adversus Marcio- 
nem Lib. V. 

For a mention of a full list of his works and the 
earliest and best collections of them, see McClintock 
& Strong’s Cyclopedia Biblical, Theological and 
Ecclesiastical, Vol. X.. Harper & Bros., 1881, from 
which this extract is taken. 

Such is a very brief sketch of the life of this re¬ 
markable man whose testimony in relation to the 
Acts of Pilate has been given in foregoing pages 
of this work. 


LIFE OF EUSEBIUS. 


Eusebius, who is well known as the father of ec¬ 
clesiastical history, was born in Palestine probably 
about the year a. d, 265, the exact date of his birth 
being uncertain. 

He was surnamed Pamphili, because he was the 
friend of Pamphilus. 

Little is known of his youth except that he was a 
diligent and laborious student of sacred literature. 
It was as a student that he became connected with 
Pamphilus, who was president of a theological 
school at Cagsarea, and there devoted himself to the 
collection of a church library mainly in defence of 
the writings of his great master Origen. 

During his imprisonment in the Diocletian perse¬ 
cution—and in which Pamphilus suffered martyr¬ 
dom—Eusebius distinguished himself by great devo¬ 
tion to this friend of his, spending days with him in 
affectionate intercourse, and it is supposed, actively 
assisted him in the preparation of an apology for 
Origen’s teaching. After the death of Pamphilus 
Eusebius withdrew to the city of Tyre where the 
Bishop Paulinus kindly received him, and after¬ 
wards went to Egypt where he was imprisoned but 
soon released. 

His release at the time suggested an accusation 
made twenty years, afterwards by Potamon, Bishop 



324 


LIFE OF EUSEBIUS. 


of Heraclea, that he had apostatised. Potamon then 
charged that Eusebius was in prison with him, and 
that while he had an eye plucked out for his con¬ 
fession of the truth, Eusebius escaped unhurt. 
Whether this accusation had any foundation in fact 
is doubtful. Eusebius was soon afterwards ele¬ 
vated to the see of Caesarea, and this fact of itself 
defeats the charge of his heresy. This occurred in 
a. d. 313. Here Eusebius labored conspicuously till 
his death in the year 340. The character of Euse¬ 
bius is intimately bound up with the part he took at 
the council of Nicea, and afterwards in the great 
controversy connected with the work of that coun¬ 
cil. Very much discussion has been had as to the 
orthodoxy of this great man, his conduct and views 
being differently judged by his critics. He has been 
charged by Dr. Newman, in his history of the All¬ 
ans in the fourth century, as openly siding with the 
Arians and sanctioning and sharing their deeds of 
violence. The Anglican scholars from Bell and 
Cave, down to Lee of Cambridge, have warmly de¬ 
fended his orthodoxy. Eusebius was certainly not 
an Arian, although he defended Arius personally, 
any more than he was an Athanasian. 

His true position can only be said to have been 
made clear in and by the scientific theology of Ger¬ 
many, and especially in Dorner’s great work on the 
“Person of Christ.” 

When the Arian controversy broke forth, about 
a. d. 319, Arius sought the intervention of Eusebius 
to pacify the misunderstanding between him and his 
bishop, Alexander, and Eusebius responded by 


LIFE OF EUSEBIUS. 


325 


■writing two letters to Alexander explaining that 
Arius was misrepresented. 

At the council of Nicea Eusebius attended the em¬ 
peror Constantine as his special friend, and was ap¬ 
pointed to receive the august emperor with a pane¬ 
gyrical oration, at whose right hand in the council 
he had the honor of sitting. He prepared the first 
draft of the creed which was afterward, with some 
additions, adopted by the council. It was these ad¬ 
ditions that formed the whole difference between 
Eusebius and the Athanasians. He resisted the ex¬ 
pression “of the same substance*” as expressive of 
the true relation of the Father and the Son, and 
persisted in the resistance to the last, and would 
only subscribe to the creed at the dictation of the 
emperor. 

After the council Eusebius continued to identify 
himself with the fortunes of the Arian rather than of 
the Athanasian party and his great favor at court 
and his influence with the imperial authorities ena¬ 
bled him to protect the one party at the expense of 
the other. 

It is this personal attitude which has mainly iden¬ 
tified him with Arianism. In so far as he was a 
partisan, and lent himself to the persecution of the 
Athanasians his conduct deserves censure ; yet it 
must be observed that from his own theological 
standpoint lie was disposed to regard the treatment 
of Arius by his opponents as indefensible, and to 
consider his opinions as tenable within the church. 
He regarded the Athanasians the innovators in doc¬ 
trine rather than Arius, who only maintained a 


EIFE OF EUSEBIUS. 


326 


standpoint that many had held in the church before 
him, whereas the Athanasian development evidently 
appeared to Eusebius as going beyond the older 
and less determined doctrine in which he had been 
trained. Eusebius has been charged with being de¬ 
ficient in that spiritual and speculative insight which 
sees the true drift of opinions, and detects below the 
surface of language, a true from a false line of de¬ 
velopment of Christian thought. 

But as has been remarked by the acute Dorner, 
it was clear, in regard to the theological position at 
that time, that the church had arrived at a point at 
which it could not stand still, but must choose one 
or the other of two courses—either to take a step in 
advance, and define the indefinite, or go backwards 
either into heathenism or into Judaism. We can 
not here further allude to the theological views en¬ 
tertained by the subject of our sketch. We will 
only say that Eusebius is admitted to have excelled 
in erudition all the church fathers, not excepting 
Origen and Jerome. 

Among his writings his Ecclesiastical History is 
a valuable repertory of the opinions of the Christian 
writers of the second and third centuries whose 
works have perished. He has been charged with 
personality and inaccuracy by Gibbon, but without 
adequate evidence. The most important of his 
works are his Ecclesiastical History, in ten books, 
covering a period of the church’s history from the 
ascension of Christ to a. d. 324 ; The Chronicon, in 
two books, comprising an historical sketch, with 
chronological tables, of the most important events in 


LIFE OF EUSEBIUS. 


327 


the history of the world from the days of Abraham 
till the twelfth year of the reign of Constantine ; 
The Praeperatio Evangelica, in fifteen books, being 
a collection of facts and quotations from the works 
of nearly all the philosophers of antiquity ; The De¬ 
monstrate Evangelica, in twenty books, of which 
only ten are extant, a learned and valuable treatise 
on the evidences themselves ; and various minor 
works such as the Theophania. in four books, De 
Vita Constantini, etc., etc. 

A full list of the works of Eusebius may be found 
in McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopedia of Biblical 
and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. X., from which 
this sketch is principally taken. 


SKETCH OF TISCHENDORF, WITH SOME ACCOUNT 
OF HIS MOST REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES. 


Constantine Tischendorf, the most prominent 
scholar in the department of New-Testament pala30- 
graphy, was born January IS, 1815, at Lengenfeld, 
Saxony. Having been prepared at the gymnasium 
at Plauen for the university, he entered at Easter, 
1834, the halls of Leipsic. 

Here Gottfried Hermann and George Benedict 
Winer were among his teachers. At the close of 
1836 he received a prize medal for an essay on 
Doctrina Pauli Apostoli de Vi Mortis Christi Satis- 
factoria, which he published at Leipsic in 1837. A 
second prize was awarded him in 1838, on Dispu- 
tatio de Christo, published in 1839. At the same 
time he took his degree of doctor of physiology. 
In 1840 he published Dissertatio Critica et Exege- 
tica de Ev. Matt., and was promoted as licentiate 
of theology ; in the 'same year he qualified as pri- 
vatdocent of theology by publishing De recensioni- 
bus quas dicunt Novi Testamenti Ratione Potis- 
simum habita Scholzii, reprinted in the Prolegomena 
to the Greek Testament in 1841. In this essay, as 
Kahnis rightly remarked, he gave to the world the 
programme of his theological future. In 1839, Oc¬ 
tober, he began to prepare a critical hand-edition of 



SKETCH OF TISCHENDORF. 


329 


the Greek New Testament which was published 
under the title Novum Testamentum Graece : etc.* 
etc. In 1840 Tischendorf went to Paris. The 
library there contained a celebrated palimpsest. A 
manuscript of the Bible from early in the fifth cen¬ 
tury had been cleaned oft' in the twelfth century, 
and used for writings of Ephraem Syrus. What 
no mortal had been able to do before, Tischendorf 
did, and with the aid of chemical reagents he com¬ 
pletely restored the original text. 

The University of Breslau acknowledged his 
-merit by bestowing on him the title of doctor of 
theology. Meanwhile he also collated the Paris 
manuscript of Philo, for Prof. Grossman at Leipsic, 
and the only remaining MS. of the sixtieth book of 
the Basilicas, for Dr. Heimbach at Jena. F. Didot, 
the publisher, bargained with Tischendorf for a re¬ 
issue of his Leipsic edition, which appeared at Paris 
in 1842, and then abbe Jager, a professor in the 
Sarbonne. begged him to edit a Greek text that 
should be as nearly as possible conformable to the 
Vulgate, which was also published in the same year. 
In 1841 and 1842 he visited the libraries in Holland, 
London, Cambridge, and Oxford. Early in 1843 
he left Paris for Rome, working four weeks on the 
Codex E of the Gospels of Basle. In Italy he 
stayed more than a year, and used his time in the 
best possible manner. After his Italian researches 
were finished, he prepared to start for his first East¬ 
ern journey in 1844, which he repeated again in 
1853 and 1859. On his third journey, in 1859. he 
discovered the famous Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest 


330 


SKETCH OF TISCHENDORF. 


and most perfect manuscript copy of the Bible ex¬ 
tant. The incidents of this journey and the discov¬ 
ery of this sacred treasure to the Christian world 
are here summarized as especially interesting. 

There is an old convent in Mount Sinai, founded 
according to traditionary account by the emperor 
Justinian, a. d. 527. The flight of St. Catherine’s 
body, according to tradition, which was transported 
from Alexandria to the top of the mountain in a. d. 
307, and whose relics are said now to repose in the 
chancel behind the altar, doubtless gave the name 
to this convent, which is called St. Catherine’s ; 
and it was in this convent that Tischendorf discov¬ 
ered the Sinai Bible. 

Having previously visited the libraries of England, 
France, the Netherlands and Italy, he went to the 
Levant under the patronage of the king of Saxony : 
and it was during that tour he visited for awhile the 
Convent of St. Catherine. 

It was while sojourning here that one day in 
looking over the contents of an old paper basket 
used for holding waste paper that he happened to 
discover, to his great delight, several fragments of 
a very old manuscript of the Septuagint—a manu¬ 
script which by examination he determined to be 
not less ancient than the fourth century ot the Chris¬ 
tian era. These fragments were taken by Tischen¬ 
dorf to Leipsic and published two years afterward 
in fac-simile. 

In 1858, after much negotiation and preliminary 
arrangement, having received permission from Alex¬ 
ander II., the then emperor of Russia, to visit the 


SKETCH OF TISCHENDORF. 


331 


East with the view of searching for and purchasing 
ancient manuscripts that might be of service in pro¬ 
moting Biblical learning, he set out on his eastern 
tour of exploration. In the early part of the year 
1859 he again arrived at the old convent on Mount 
Sinai, where, with his old friends, the monks, 
whose acquaintance he had made on a former tour, 
he remained some days. He, however, had de¬ 
spaired of success in making any further discovery 
of the much desired treasure which the discovery 
of a few years before had led him to believe might 
be accomplished by his further research. 

He had therefore ordered his dragoman to fetch 
his Bedouins with their camels to take him back 
to Cairo. But, luckily, the steward of the convent 
proposed a walk prior to his setting out, and thus by 
another providential accident it happened that the 
great scholar was rewarded for all his worry and 
watching. For during this stroll with his triend the 
steward, he intimated to Tischendorf, that he. too, 
had ‘‘seen and read a manuscript copy of the Sep- 
tuagint,” and, moreover, that he had a copy in his 
possession. When they returned from their Avalk 
they proceeded together to the steward’s dormitory, 
where, from a hidden recess, he brought out a pack¬ 
age wrapped up in a red cloth. 

On unfolding this package it proved to be the 
long sought manuscript—a manuscript the most 
perfect, perhaps, in existence, of the Bible. One 
which the Codex Vaticanus alone could rival in 
point of age—and in comparison with which the best 
of the literary treasures of Rome musr give place. 


332 


SKETCH OF TISCHENDORF. 


Dr. Tischendorf obtained permission of the steward 
to take the ancient treasure with him to his bed¬ 
room, and there, upon examination, he became con¬ 
vinced of the value of his discovery, and, to use 
his own language, he “gave God thanks for bestow¬ 
ing so great a favor on the church, upon literature, 
and upon himself.” All that night he spent in 
copying a portion of the manuscript. He felt it “a 
crime to sleep under the circumstances of the situa¬ 
tion” in which he was placed. 

Modern or medieval sacred literature presents us 
with no more romantic picture than that of this 
Christian scholar of the nineteenth century, sitting 
at midnight upon the “Mount of the Burning Bush,” 
reading a volume fourteen centuries old, containing 
a copy of the stone tables delivered to Moses on 
that spot during the exodus from Egypt—the “Old 
Law,” written on stone many long centuries ago 
by the “Finger of God,” preserved in the history 
of a people whose vicissitudes of fortune can not be 
paralleled in the annals of the world—copied into 
every living tongue of the civilized world—is being 
read on that night by a man removed forward by 
thousands of years into the light, which, first blaz¬ 
ing in Sinai’s Bush, enlightens the foremost nation¬ 
alities of the nineteenth century. 

How must he have felt standing where the Angel 
of the Bush stood, reading there the oldest copv of 
of the oldest law delivered under the lightnings and 
thunderings of God’s personal presence. Sinai 
still kept the oldest copy, and we feel that it was a 
fitting treasure for such a place. And though St. 


SKETCH OF TISCHENDORF. 


333 


Petersburgh holds the treasure to-day, we can but 
feel that it should still remain in the old convent, on 
the sacred mount on whose top was first drafted the 
platform of a Moral Constitution whose like has 
never been framed for the government of Man. On 
the day following the discovery Tischendorf ob¬ 
tained the consent of the brethern to take the man¬ 
uscript with him to Cairo, in order that he might 
there transcribe it fully, at his leisure. 

Still, this could not be done without the consent 
of their Supervisors. He therefore procured an of¬ 
ficial letter from the librarian of the monastery and 
on the 7th of February, 1859, left Mount Sinai and 
proceeded to Cairo, bearing his letter to the chief of 
the Ecclesiastical Order, Agathangelus. He, at 
once, despatched upon a dromedary a courier shiek 
to Mount Sinai, who, after a safe journey of only 
nine days, laid the precious manuscript into Tischen- 
dorf’s hands. 

Tischendorf at once set about the work of tran¬ 
scribing it, and with two assistants he completed 
the task in two months. 

The transcribed copy was compared letter by 
letter with the original. 

After this labor had been completed, Tischendorf 
conceived the idea of negotiating with the monks at 
St. Catherine’s for the transfer of the original to 
the permanent possession of the learned of Europe. 

He was, after many difficulties and much delay t 
successful; and on the 28th of September, 1859. 
the Codex Sinaiticus was placed in his possession 
at Cairo, under the stipulation that he should bear 


334 


SKETCH OF TISCHENDORF. 


it to St. Petersburg!! for publication, and to remain 
in the keeping of the Czar, until the archbishop 
should make it the property of the Czar forever. 

On the October of the same year Tischendorf 
had the honor of placing the old copy before Alex¬ 
ander at St. Petersburgh. It was placed in the Im¬ 
perial Library where for a fortnight the public of 
the Russian capital had the privilege of viewing it. 
There, among more than half a million printed vol¬ 
umes. and twenty thousand manuscripts, it formed 
an object of interest and attraction as king among 
books. 

It was a triumphal spectacle for Tischendorf, and 
a day of triumph for the Book-of-books. 

Among the writings of men few books have 
graced so high a place of honor as did Moses and 
the Prophets, Christ and the Apostles, on that proud 
day. 

An imperial order was made, that three hundred 
fac-simile copies should be made and distributed 
throughout the Christian world, by the Czar. 

In pursuance of this, Tischendorf took the origi¬ 
nal to Leipsic for the purpose of founding the types 
and arrangingfor its printing. In November, 1861, 
Tischendorf formally presented to the Czar and 
Czarina the fruit of his labors. Three hundred 
copies of the fac-simile were ordered, one hundred 
of which the Czar presented to Tischendorf. 

Of the fac-similes of this great work so success¬ 
fully reproduced by the liberality of Alexander of 
Russia and the untiring zeal of its discoverer, we 
believe three are to be found in this country—one 


SKETCH OF TISCHENDORF. 


335 


in the library at Washington, D. C.: one in the 
Astor library of New York and one in the Lane Sem¬ 
inary library of Cincinnati. For the gratification of 
the curious reader, we here append a description of 
the original: It is a large quarto volume, the width 
of the pages being somewhat greater than the 
length. It is made of dressed skins of animals, 
chiefly of the antelope of the Arabian and African 
deserts, one skin forming two leaves throughout, 
and which must have required in its preparation very 
great skill, in order to receive the impressions from 
the stylus. 

The entire manuscript consists of 345| skins—199 
make up the Old Testament and the remainder 
forms the New. 

Each page contains four narrow columns of writ¬ 
ing 9-j- inches long and \\ broad, each column 
having 48 lines. 

The color of the skins is a light yellow. 

The ink has many hues—blackish, copper-tinted 
and yellowish. Throughout it is in capital letters. 

Originally there appears to have been no punctu¬ 
ation. The vastness of the age of this unique man¬ 
uscript is clearly proved by Tischendorf in his Pro¬ 
legomena and the arguments are given at such length 
there that no opportunity is left for doubt by the 
candid-minded reader. Thus there was given to 
the world perhaps the oldest and most valued copy 
of the Bible through the indefatigable energy and 
persevering labors of Tischendorl. Leaving his 
home with but a few dollars in his possession, and 
wearing a suit of clothing purchased on credit, he 


336 


SKETCH OF TISCHENDORF. 


returns at last the most honorable and distinguished 
discoverer of modern times. He was created a 
Russian noble, a Saxon privy-councillor, knight of 
many orders, doctor of all academic degrees. He 
was made ordinary professor of Leipsic University, 
and a special chair of palaeography was made for 
him. From this period onward he devoted the re¬ 
mainder of his life to the publishing of the results of 
his amassed materials collected on his different jour¬ 
neys. In November, 1874, he had a recurrence of 
apoplexy that had attacked him a year before and 
of which he died Dec. 7th 1874. 

In his last will he left this testimony of his life : 
<; In my labors I have sought no other aim than 
truth ; to her I have always unconditionally bowed 
the knee.’ And so passed away this great scholar 
in the school of Christ. 

Among his discoveries must not be omitted the 
mention of certain papers contained in this volume. 
We refer to the two remarkably rare manuscripts 
mentioned on page 139 of this work—the Coptic- 
Sahidian and Latin palimpsest manuscripts, corrob¬ 
orative of the Acts of Pilate. His comments on the 
antiquity and genuinness of the Acts of Pilate have 
been already quoted, at length, on pp. 135-141 of 
this volume. 


SUMMARY. 

APPENDIX. 


In attempting to sum up and connect together the 
leading parts or chapters of what has been set down 
in this volume, the compiler and editor would beg 
leave to add thereto some matter not so properly 
belonging to any one special chapter, as having a 
bearing on much that lies within the foregoing 
writings. 

His only excuse for so doing is, that the whole 
argument may stand out more fully than it could 
otherwise be made to do. 

It has appeared very strange to many thoughtful 
men that, Jesus the Savior, should have lived and 
wrought so prominently under the light of so splen¬ 
did a period as the Augustan age of Rome, and yet 
so little mention of his name even be found in the 
recorded history of his times, that is during the first 
one hundred years of our era, and especially so, 
when his biographers, the evangelists, and apostles, 
have recorded boldly, that, “this thing was not done 
in a corner.”* 


*See Paul’s defence before Agrippa, Acts of Apostles xxvi, 26 . 




338 


SUMMARY. 


Now this very omission of almost the mention of 
the name of Jesus by Greek, Roman and Jewish 
writers has been laid hold of by some minds, illog¬ 
ical as it may be, to prove that, truly, no such 
person as Jesus, as described by the Evangelists, 
ever existed. They argue that such a person as de¬ 
scribed by the Gospel historians could not have ex¬ 
isted unless he should have been noticed by other 
writers than the Evangelists. 

And while this is most illogical reasoning, yet. 
upon the surface, it would seem that some of the 
great events in the life of Jesus, that could hardly 
have escaped general and public observation, have 
been entirely left out of all books, all records, save 
the New Testament accounts. 

This does not prove however, at all, that such 
events did not occur. 

The record of an event has nothing to do with its 
occurrence, either logically or philosophically con¬ 
sidered. 

An event may occur without being recorded, and 
its occurrence may be recorded without any such 
events having taken place, and, in a word this is the 
whole logical and philosophical connection between 
the two. 

The omission of Josephus, at least, of any men¬ 
tion of Jesus would appear inexplicable except as 
purely intentional on his part. A man who has left 
us a fairly full account of John the Baptist, and Pon¬ 
tius Pilate, and others closely associated in public 
events and transactions with Jesus, could not have 
failed to become somewhat acquainted with those 


SUMMARY. 


339 


-events—nor could he have left out Jesus, one of the 
chief actors on the stage where thev were acted, ex¬ 
cept by design, and well kept intention. 

The character of Josephus as shown in his own 
writings and as supplied by himself was, as a histo¬ 
rian, equal to this, and much worse than this, 
when moved by prejudice of any sort. 

The reader is referred to Huidekoper’s “Judaism 
at Rome b. c. 76 to a. d 140 pp. 551—555” for a pic¬ 
ture of Josephus as taken from his own writings, in 
proof of this statement. 

In the great event of the crucifixion with the re¬ 
markable occurrences attending it, we have been 
taught to believe however, that, if these things hap¬ 
pened they would have been firmly set down, es¬ 
pecially by historians who were “careful to note all 
important events.” 

This is another piece of illogical teaching that has 
all the time been accepted, by a certain school of 
critics. 

But because Josephus does not credit Jesus with 
having been born of Mary, at Bethlehem, does not 
prove at all, that Josephus was unacquainted with 
such an occurrence. Because he does not credit him 
with the miracle of having healed the lame, or blind 
man, by no means proves that He did not do these 
acts, or that they were unknown to each writer that 
has failed to record them. 

And because the Roman Historian, Tacitus, calls 
his religion a vile superstition, does by no means 
prove that Christ and his deciples were the founders 
of a superstition, except to the mind of Tacitus and 


340 


SUMMARY. 


those to and for whom he was writing, who were 
disposed to such an opinion. 

More than this, because the friends of Jesus alone 
wrote out his biography does in no way prove that 
this biography was untruthfully written, any more 
than that the philosophy taught by Socrates was un¬ 
truthfully stated by Plato because of Plato’s being 
a friend and pupil of Socrates. 

But this has been the line of argument, followed, 
at many times, by many otherwise clever minded 
people, and on which line we find some “scholars 
and historians” determined to fight out the conclu¬ 
sion, as if they were fighting according to proper 
laws of war. 

But, while all this is so, while all this is a false 
method af procedure, it must be allowed that, it 
would be more gratifying to all, had there been 
preserved to us from historians outside the New 
Testament, more and fuller mention of Jesus than to¬ 
day we possess. 

This desire for fuller testimony we are aware has 
gone to extremes, at times, and in the minds of 
honest men of good intent, has disgraced history 
with fable and forgery and thereby reflected on much 
of the good coin of history left to us, a shadow of 
spuriousness. 

It has given rise moreover to would-be censors of 
all history, and book-burners, that have despoiled 
many a library of golden wealth of knowledge, in 
history, biography and art, that might have furthered 
the interests of humanity in every department of hu¬ 
man effort and knowledge. 


SUMMARY. 


341 


The remarkable papers attributed to Pilate in this 
Took, most of which are “substantiated by a docu¬ 
mentary confirmation of their text of the highest or¬ 
der” have not therefore been collected under a glar¬ 
ing title, and displayed as documents of great import 
to the Christian history, without mature reflection. 
They are in keeping not only with the New Testa¬ 
ment accounts, but with other history of the times, 
that makes their contents most interesting, and as 
filling up some of those gaps necessary to a complete 
portraiture of the crucifixion, and a better acquain¬ 
tance with the life of the Crucified One, Jesus, the 
Savior. 

They fall in, naturally, as a part of the story of 
the times, when strange events were springing forth, 
upon whose occurrence was to be built up a mighty 
change in the religious systems of Rome as well 
as those of other peoples and cults not numbered 
among her provinces. 

They fall in, too, as a part of the testimony to the 
truth of our sacred books, and in many incidental 
details, to confirm and explain allusions made in our 
New Testament records. 

To understand the probable truthfulness of their 
statements we must enquire somewhat into the con¬ 
nection of the Jewish and Roman polities of govern 
ment, and the relations subsisting between the two 
governments at the period of the times they cover, 
and know the modes and frequency of communica¬ 
tion and the mutual interests of the people of Rome 
and Judea, before, during and after the days of 
Jesus. 


342 


SUMMARY. 


Now there can be no doubt left that, from the 
time of Julius Caesar’s dictatorship, down to the time 
when Titus took Jerusalem, Rome was very fully 
acquainted with affairs in Judea and at Jerusalem. 

This is made manifest by many records still to be 
had, such as the decrees of this first of the Caesars 
to several of the provinces, in behalf of the Jews; 
and which may be read in full in Josephus. (See 
Antiq. Book XIV chap. X, and from other like Ro¬ 
man records.) 

We give below an extract or two from these de¬ 
crees as showing the feeling subsisting at the time, 
between the Romans and the Jews, and as bearing 
on the relations between them, at that time ; of their 
mutual interests in governmental affairs and per¬ 
taining to their civil, religious and social rights and 
priveleges. 

Below are given some decrees of Julius Caesar 
concerning the Jews. 

Josephus informs us that these records “are laid up in the public 
places of the cities, and are extant still in the capital, and engraven 
upon pillars of brass; nay, besides this, Julius Caesar made a pillar 
of brass for the Jews of Alexandria, and declared publicly that they 
were citizens of Alexandria. Out of these evidences will I demon¬ 
strate what I say; and will now set down the decrees made both by 
the senate and by Julius Caesar, which relate to Hyrcanus and to 
The Jews.” 

“Caius Julius Caesar, imperator and high priest, and dictator the 
second time, to the magistrates, senate, and people of Sidon, sendeth 
greeting. If you be in health, it is well. I also and the army are 
well. I have sent you a copy of that decree, registered on the 
tables, which concerns Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high 
priest and ethnarch of the Jews, that it may be laid up among the 
public records; and I will that it be openly proposed in a table of 
brass both in Greek and in Latin. It is as follows : I, Julius Csesaiv 


SUMMARY. 


343 


imperator the second time, and high priest, have made this decree, 
with the approbation of the senate: Whereas Hyrcanus, the son of 
Alexander the Jew, hath demonstrated his fidelity and diligence 
about our affairs, and this both now and in former times, both in 
peace and in war, as many of our generals have borne witness, and 
came to our assistance in the last Alexandrian war, with fifteen hun¬ 
dred soldiers; and when he was sent by me to Mithridates, showed 
himself superior in valour to all the rest of that army :—for these 
reasons I will that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, and his children, 
be ethnarchs of the Jews, and have the high priesthood of the Jews 
for ever, according to the customs of their forefathers, and that he 
and his son be our confederates ; and that besides this, everyone of 
them be reckoned among our particular friends. I also ordain, that 
he and his children retain whatsoever privileges belong to the office 
of high priest, or whatsoever favours have been hitherto granted 
them ; and if at any time hereafter there arise any questions about 
the Jewish customs, I will that he determine the same : and I think 
it not proper that they should be obliged to find us in winter quar¬ 
ters, or that any money should be required of them.” 

“THE DECREES of Caius Coesar, consul, containing what hath 
been granted and determined, are as follows:—That Hyrcanus and 
his children bear rule over the nation of the Jews, and have the 
profits of the places to them bequeathed : and that he, as himself 
the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, defend those that are in¬ 
jured; and that ambassadors be sent to Hyrcanus, the son of Alex¬ 
ander the high priest of the Jews, that may discourse with him 
about a league of friendship and mutual assistance; and that a table 
of brass, containing the premises, be openly proposed in the capitol, 
and at Sidon, and Tyre, and Askelon, and in the temple, engraven 
in Roman and Greek letters: and that this decree may also be com¬ 
municated to the questors and pretors of the several cities, and to 
the friends of the Jews: and that the ambassadors may have presents 
made them, and that these decrees be sent everywhere. ” 

“CAIUS CAESAR, imperator, dictator, consul, hath granted, that 
out of regard to the honour, and virtue, and kindness of the man, 
and for the advantage of the senate, and of the people of Rome, 
Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, both he and his children, be high 
priests and priests of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish nation, by the 
same right, and according to the same laws, by which their progeni¬ 
tors have held the priesthood. ” 


344 


SUMMARY. 


“CAIUS C/ESAR, consul the fifth time, hath decreed, That the 
Jews shall possess Jerusalem, and may encompass that city with 
walls, and that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and 
ethnarch of the Jews, retain it in the manner he himself pleases : 
and the Jews be allowed to deduct out of their tribute, every second 
year the land is let [in the Sabbatic period], a corus of that tribute: 
and that the tribute they pay be not let to farm, nor that they pay 
always the same tribute.” 

“CAIUS C/ESAR, imperator the second time, hath ordained. 
That all the country of the Jews, excepting Joppa, do pay a tribute 
yearly for the city Jerusalem, excepting the seventh, which they call 
the Sabbatical Year, because thereon they neither receive the fruits of 
their trees, nor do they sow their land; and that they pay their tribute 
in Sidon on the seventh year [of that Sabbatic period,] the fourth 
part of what was sown ; and besides this, they are to pay the same 
tithes to Hyrcanus and his sons, which they paid to their forefathers. 
And that no one, neither president, nor lieutenant, nor ambassador, 
raise auxiliaries within the bounds of Judea, nor may soldiers exact 
money of them for winter quarters, or under any other pretence, but 
that they may be free from all sorts of injuries ; and that whatsoever 
they shall hereafter have, and are in possession of, or have bought, 
they shall retain them all. It is also our pleasure that the city 
Joppa, which the Jews had originally when they made a league of 
friendship with the Romans, shall belong to them, as it formerly did. 

Below we subjoin extracts of the decrees of Mark 
Antony, and, after him. of Augustus Caesar. 

“MARCUS ANTONIUS, imperator, to the magistrates, senate, 
and people of Tyre, sendeth greeting. I have sent you my decree, 
of which I will that ye take care that it be engraven on the public 
tables, in Roman and Greek letters, and that it stand engraven in the 
most illustrious places, that it may be read by all. Marcus Anton- 
ius, imperator, one of the triumvirate over the public affairs, made 
the declaration :—Since Caius Cassius, in this revolt he hath made, 
hath pillaged that province which belonged not to him, and was held 
by garrisons there encamped, while they were our confederates, and 
hath spoiled that nation of the Jews which was in friendship with 
the Roman people, as in war ; and since we have overcome his mad¬ 
ness by arms, we now correct by our decrees and judicial determina¬ 
tions, what he hath laid waste, that those things may be restored to 


SUMMARY. 


345 


our confederates ;’and a* for what hath been sold of the Jewish pos¬ 
sessions, whether they be bodies or possessions, let them be released; 
the bodies into that state of freedom they were originally in, and the 
possessions to their former owners. I also will, That he who shall 
not comply with this decree of mine, shall be punished for his diso¬ 
bedience ; and if such a one be caught, I will take care that the of¬ 
fenders suffer condign punishment.” 

THE SAME thing did Antony write to the Sidonians, and the 
Antiochians, and the Ardians. 

“CyESAR AUGUSTUS, high priest and tribune of the people, 
ordains thus:—Since the nation of the Jews hath been found grate¬ 
ful to the Roman people, not only at this time, but in time past also, 
and chiefly Ilyrcanus the high priest, under my father Caesar the em¬ 
peror, it seemed good to me and my counsellors, according to the 
sentence and oath of the people of Rome, that the Jews have lib¬ 
erty to make use of their own customs, according to the law of their 
forefathers, as they made use of them under Hyrcanus the high 
priest of Almighty God ; and that their sacred money be not touched 
but be sent to Jerusalem, and that it be committed to the care of 
the receivers at Jerusalem ; and that they be not obliged to go before 
any judge on the Sabbath-day, nor on the day of the preparation to 
it, after the ninth hour : but if any one be caught stealing their holy 
books, or their sacred money, whether it be out of the synagogue or 
public school, he shall be deemed a sacrilegious person, and his goods 
shall be brought into the public treasury of the Romans- And I 
give order, that the testimonial which they have given me, on ac¬ 
count of my regard to that piety which I exercise toward all man¬ 
kind, and out of regard to Caius Marcus Censorinus, together with 
the present decree, be proposed in that most eminent place which 
hath been consecrated to me by the community of Asia at Ancyra. 
And if any one transgress any part of what is above decreed, he 
shall be severely punished.” This was inscribed upon a pillar in the 
temple of Caesar. 

Below will be found an edict of the emperor Clau¬ 
dius, concerning the Jews, and also a letter. 

EDICT. 

“Tiberius Claudius Caesar, Augustus, Germanicus, high priest, 
tribune of the people, chosen consul the second time, ordains thus:— 


346 


SUMMARY. 


Upon the petition of king Agrippa and king Herod, who are person? 
very dear to me, that I would grant the same rights and privileges 
should be preserved to the Jens which are in all the Roman empire, 
which I have granted to those of Alexandria, I very willingly comply 
therewith ; and this grant I make not only for the sake of the peti¬ 
tioners, but as judging those Jews for whom I have been petitioned 
worthy of such a favour, on account of their fidelity and friendship 
to the Romans. I think it also very just that no Grecian city 
should be deprived of such rights and privileges, since they were 
preserved to them under the great Augustus. It will therefore be 
fit to permit the Jews, who are in all the world under us, to keep 
their ancient customs without being hindered so to do. And I do 
charge them also to use this my kindness to them with moderation, 
and not to show a contempt of the superstitious observances of other 
nations, but to keep their own laws. only. And I will, that this de¬ 
cree of mine be engraven on tables by the magistrates of the cities 
and colonies, and municipal places, both those within Italy and those 
without it, both kings and governors, by the means of the ambassa¬ 
dors, and. to have them exposed to the public for full thirty days, 
in such a place, whence it may be plainly read from the ground.” 

This form was so known and frequent among the Romans, that it 
used to be thus represented at the bottom of their edicts by the ini¬ 
tial letters only, U. D. P. R. L. P. Unde De piano Recte Legi Pos- 
sit; “Whence it may be plainly read from the ground.” 

LETTER. 

“Claudius Csesar, Germanicus, tribune of the people the fifth time, 
and designed consul the. fourth time, and imperator the tenth time, 
the father of his country, to the magistrates, senate, and people, and 
the whole nation of the Jews, sendeth greeting. Upon the presen¬ 
tation of your ambassadors to me by Agrippa my friend, whom I 
have brought up, and have now with me, and who is a person of 
very great piety, who are come to give me thanks for the care I have 
taken of your nation, and to entreat me, in an earnest and obliging 
manner, that they may have the holy vestments, with the crown be¬ 
longing to them, under their power,—I grant their request, as that 
excellent person Vitellius, who is very dear to me, had done before 
me. And I have complied with your desire, in the first place, out 
of regard to that piety which I profess, and because I would have 
every one worship God according to the laws of their own country: 


SUMMARY. 


347 


and this I do also, because I shall hereby highly gratify king Herod 
and Agrippa junior, whose sacred regards to me, and earnest good¬ 
will to you, I am well acquainted with, and with whom I have the 
greatest friendship, and whom I highly esteem, and lo6k on as a per¬ 
son of the best character. Now I have written about these affairs to 
Cuspius Fadus, my procurator. The names of those that brought 
me your letter are Cornelius, the son of Cero, Trypho, the son of 
Thendio, Dorotheus, the son of Nathaniel, and John, the son of 
John. This is dated before the fourth of the calends of July, when 
Rufus and Pompeius Sylvanus are consuls.” 

The foregoing decrees are sufficient to illustrate 
the disposition of their writers toward the govern¬ 
ment of the Jewish people, so far as the matters re¬ 
lated in them are concerned. 

Moreover they serve to show us the manner and 
style of such public writings as made between the 
Romans and the Jews, and the care taken to pre¬ 
serve them, on pillars, monuments and tablets. 

Besides these public edicts, many letters concern¬ 
ing minor matters of personal concern are preserved 
to us, which passed between the officials of both 
governments. 

The truth is, at some periods of their history, af¬ 
ter the days of Julius Caesar on to the times of Tibe¬ 
rius and Claudius, a sort of family connection sub¬ 
sisted between the great Houses of the Jews and 
their Roman rulers. 

In the case of Agrippa the great-grand-son of 
Herod the Great, we have an instance, as well as in 
his father, Agrippa the Great, of most intimate and 
friendly intercourse between the emperors and sen¬ 
ate of Rome and the Jewish kings or governors. 

It was the custom of the Roman Government to 
live with and treat the heads of foreign Houses in 


348 


SUMMARY. 


the provinces, iso as to gain them over to the Romans 
entirely, and to more easily and completely assimi¬ 
late these provincial territories. 

We shall set down here a proof of how far this 
had been done in his case, by Agrippa’s great 
speech, to the Jews, to dissuade them from war with 
the Romans ; and because, in this speech we have 
an authentic account of the extent and strength of 
the Roman Empire when the Jewish war began, and 
much other history illustrative of the Roman attitude 
toward the Jews before and at this time ; and be¬ 
cause it especially illustrates the stubborn tenacity 
with which the Jews clung to the idea of resistance 
to their Roman masters.- 

This Agrippa is the “King Agrippa” mentioned 
in the Acts of Apostles chap, xxvi, and before whom 
Paul made his defence, and who said to Paul, “al¬ 
most thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” He 
was a most admirable man, and as Paul puts it “ex¬ 
pert in all questions and customs which are among 
the Jews.” Wherefore Paul besought him “to hear 
(him) most patiently.”- 

“Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go to 
war with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of 
the people did not propose to live in peace, 1 had not come out to 
you, nor been ~.o bold as to give you counsel; for all discourses that 
tend to persuade men to do what they ought to do is superfluous, 
when the hearers are agreed to do the contrary. But because some 
are earnest to go to war because they are young, and without exper¬ 
ience of the miseries it brings; and because some are for it, out of 
an unreasonable expectation of regaining their liberty, and because 
others hope to get by it, and are therefore earnestly bent upon it; that 
in the confusion of your affairs they may gain what belongs to those 
that are too weak to resist them, I have thought proper to get you all 




SUMMARY. 


349 


together, and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage - r 
that so the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and that 
the best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of some 
others. And let not any one be tumultuous against me, in case 
what they hear me say do not please them; for as to those that admit 
of no cure, but are resolved upon a revolt, it will still be in their 
power to retain the same sentiments after my exhortation is over ; 
but still my discourse will fall to the ground, even with relation to 
those that have a mind to hear me, unless you will all keep silence. 

I am well aware that they make a tragical exclamation concerning - 
the injuries that have been offered you by your procurators, and con¬ 
cerning the glorious advantages of liberty ; but before I begin the 
inquiry, who you are that must go to war, and who they are against 
whom you must fight,—I shall first separate those pretences that are 
by some connected together ; for if you aim at avenging yourselves 
on those that have done you injury, why do you pretend this to be a 
war for recovering your liberty? but if you think all servitude intol¬ 
erable, to what purpose serve your complaints against your particular 
governors? for if they treated you with moderation, it would still be 
equally an unworthy thing to be in servitude. Consider now the 
several cases that may be supposed, how liitle occasion there is for 
your going to war. Your first occasion is, the accusations you have 
to make against your procurators : now here you ought to be sub¬ 
missive to those in authority, and not give them any provocation: 
but when you reproach men greatly for small offences, you excite 
those wfiom you reproach to be your adversaries ; for this will only 
make them leave off hurting you privately, and with some degree of 
modesty, and to lay what you have waste openly. Now nothing so 
much damps the force of strokes as bearing them with patience ; and 
the quietness of those who are injuried diverts the injurious persons 
from afflicting. But let us take it for granted that the Roman min¬ 
isters are injurious to you, and are incurably severe; yet are they not 
all the Romans who thus injure you ; nor hath Caesar, against whom 
you are going to make war, injuried you: it is not by their com¬ 
mand that any wicked governor is sent to you ; for they who are in 
the west cannot see those that are in the east; nor indeed is it easy 
for them there, even to hear what is done in those parts. Now it is 
absurd to make war with a great many for the sake of one; to do so 
with such mighty people, for a small cause; and this when these 
people are not able to know of what you complain : nay, such crimes 


350 


SUMMARY. 


as we complain of may soon be corrected, for the same procurator 
will not continue forever ; and probable it is that the successors will 
come with more moderate inclinations. But as for war, if it be 
once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne without ca¬ 
lamities coming therewith. However, as to the desire of recover¬ 
ing your liberty, it is unreasonable to indulge it so late ; whereas you 
ought to have laboured earnestly in old time that you might never 
have lost it; for the first experience of slavery was hard to be en¬ 
dured, and the struggle that you might never have been subject to it 
would have been just; but that slave who hath been once brought 
into subjection, and then runs away, is rather a refactory slave than 
a lover of liberty; for it was then the proper time for doing all that 
was possible, that you might never have admitted the Romans into 
your city when Pompey came first into the country. But so it was, 
that our ancestors and their kings, who were in much better circum¬ 
stances than we are, both as to money and strong bodies, and valiant 
souls, did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army 
And yet you who have not accustomed yourselves to obedience from 
one generation to another, and who are so much inferior to those 
who first submitted ip your circumstances, will venture to oppose 
the entire empire of the Romans; while those Athenians, who, in 
order to preserve the liberty of Greece, did once set fire to their own 
city who pursued Xerxes, that proud prince, when he sailed upon the 
land, and walked upon the sea; and could not be contained by the 
seas ; but conducted such an army as was too broad for Europe; and 
made him run away like a fugitive in a single ship, and brake so 
great a part of Asia at theLesser Salamis, are yet at this time ser¬ 
vants to the Romans; and those injunctions which are sent from 
Italy, become laws to the principal governing city of Greece. Those 
Lacedemonians also, who got the great victories at Thermopylae and 
Platea, and had Agesilaus for their king, and searched every corner 
of Asia, are contented to admit the same lords. These Macedon¬ 
ians also, who still fancy what great men their Philip and Alexander 
were, and see that the latter had promised them empire over the 
world, these bear so great a change, and pay their obedience to those 
whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. Moreover, ten thousand 
other nations there are, who had greater reason than we to claim 
their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You are the only people 
who think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the world 
hath submitted. What sort of an army do you rely on? What are 


SUMMARY. 


351 


the arms you depend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon 
the Roman seas? and where are those treasures which may be suffi¬ 
cient for your undertakings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that you 
are to make war with the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will 
you not carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will you not es¬ 
timate your own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten 
■even by your neighbouring nations, while the pow<# of the Romans 
is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth? nay, rather, they 
seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphrates is not suffi¬ 
cient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on the 
north; and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searched over 
by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on 
the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earth 
beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such British 
islands as were never known before. What, therefore, do you pre¬ 
tend to? Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, 
wiser than the Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habit¬ 
able earth?—What confidence is it that elevates you to oppose the 
Romans? Perhaps it will be said, it is hard to endure slavery. Yes; 
but how much harder is this to the Greeks, who were esteemed the 
noblest of all people under the sun? These, though they inhabit in 
a large country, are in subjection to six bundles of Roman rods. It 
is the same case with the Macedonians, who have juster reason to 
claim their liberty than you have. What is the case of five hundred 
cities of Asia? do they not submit to a single governor, and to the 
consular bundle of rods? What need I speak of the Heniochi, and 
Colchi, and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the Bosphorus, 
and the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, who formerly knew not 
so much as a lord of their own, but are now subject to three thous¬ 
and armed men, and where forty long ships keep the sea in peace, 
which before was not navigable, and very tempestuous? How strong 
a plea may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphylia, 
the Lycians, and Cilicians, put in for liberty! but they are made 
tributary without an army. What are the circumstances of the 
Thracians, whose country extends in breadth five days’ journey, and 
in length seven, and is of a much more harsh constitution, and much 
more defensible than yours, and, by the rigour of its cold, sufficient 
to keep off armies from attacking them? do not they submit to two 
thousand men of the Roman garrisons? Are not the Illyrians, who 
inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the Danube, 


SUMMARY. 


352 


governed by barely two legions? by which also they put a stop to the 
incursions of the Dacians; and for the Dalmatians, who have made 
such frequent insurrections, in order to regain their liberty, and who 
could never before be so thoroughly subdued, but that they always 
gathered their forces together again, and revolted, yet are they now 
very quiet under one Roman legion. Moreover, if great advantages 
might provoke a#y people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of 
all, as being so thoroughly walled round by nature ; on the east side 
by the Alps, on the north by the river Rhine, on the south by Pyren¬ 
ean mountains, and on the west by the ocean.—Now, although these 
Gauls have such obstacles before them to prevent any attack upon 
them, and have no fewer than three hundred and five nations among; 
them, nay have, as one may say, the fountains of domestic happiness 
within themselves, and send out plentiful streams of happiness over 
almost the whole world, these bear to be tributary to the Romans, 
and derive their prosperous condition from them; and they undergo 
this, not because they are of effeminate minds, or because they are 
of an ignoble stock, as having borne a war of eighty years, in order 
to preserve their liberty,—but by reason of the great regard they 
have to the power of the Romans, and their good fortune which is 
of greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls, therefore, are 
kept in servitude by twelve hundred soldiers, who are hardly so many 
as are their cities ; nor hath the gold dug out of the mines of Spain 
been sufficient for the support of a war to preserve their liberty, nor 
could their vast distance from the Romans by land and by sea do it; 
nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians and Spaniards escape; 
no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet was terrible to the 
ancient inhabitants. Nay, the Romans have extended their arms be¬ 
yond the Pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds, 
upon the Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations ; and 
one legion is a sufficient guard for these people, although they were 
so hard to be conquered, and at a distance so remote from Rome. 
Who is there among you who hath not heard of the great number 
of the Germans? * You have, to be sure, yourselves seen them to be 
strong and tall, and that frequently, since the Romans have them 
among their captives everywhere ; yet these Germans, who dwell in 
an immense country, who have minds greater than their bodies, and 
a soul that despises death, and who are in rage more fierce than wild 
beasts, have the Rhine for the boundary of their enterprises, and are 
tamed by eight Roman legions. Such of them as were taken captive 


SUMMARY. 


353 

became their servants ; and the rest of the entire nation were obliged 
to save themselvess by flight. Do you also, who depend on the walls 
of Jerusalem, consider what a wall the Britons had ; for the Romans 
sailed away to them, and subdued them while they were encompassed 
by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not less than the conti¬ 
nent of this habitable earth, and four legions are a sufficient guard 
to so large an island and why should I speak much more about 
this matter,—while the Parthians, that most warlike body of men, 
and lords of so many nations, and encompassed with such mighty 
forces, send hostages to the Romans; whereby you may see if you 
please, even in Italy, the noblest nation of the east, under the notion 
of peace, submitting to serve them. Now, when almost all people un¬ 
der the sun submit to the Roman arms, will you be the only people 
that make war against them? and this without regarding the fate of 
the Carthaginians, who, in the midst of their brags of the great Han¬ 
nibal, and the nobility of the Phenician original, fell by the hand of 
Scipio. Nor indeed have the Cyrenians, derived from Lacedemonians, 
nor the Marmaridae, a nation extended as far as the regions unin¬ 
habitable for the want of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible 
to such as barely hear it described, the Nasamons and Moors, and 
the immense multitude of the Numidians, been able to put a stop to 
the Roman valour ; and as for the third part of the habital earth 
(Africa), whose nations are so many that it is not easy to number 
them, and which is bounded by the Atlantic Sea and the Pillars of 
Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitude of Ethiopians, as far 
as the Red Sea, these have the Romans subdued entirely. And be¬ 
sides the annual fruits of the earth, which maintain the multitude of 
the Romans for eight months in a year,this, over and above, pays all 
sorts of tribute, and affords revenues suitable to the necessities of 
the government. Nor do they, like you, esteem such injunctions a 
disgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legion that 
abides among them ; and indeed what occassion is there for showing 
you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is so 
easy to learn it from Egypt in your own neighbourhood? This coun¬ 
try is extended as far as the Ethiopians and Arabia the Happy, and 
borders upon India; it hath seven millions five hundred thousand 
men, besides the inhabitants of Alexandria, as may be learned from 
the revenue of the poll-tax ; yet it is not ashamed to submit to the 
Roman government, although it hath Alexandria as a grand tempta¬ 
tion to a revolt, by reason it is so full of people and of riches, and is 


354 


SUMMARY. 


besides exceeding large, its length being thirty furlongs, and its 
breadth no less than ten ; and it pays more tribute to the Romans in 
one month than you do in a year ; nay, besides what it pays in money, 
it sends corn to Rome that supports it four months in a year: it is 
also walled round on all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or 
seas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes ; yet have none of 
these things been found too strong for the Roman good fortune ; 
however, two legions that lie in that city are a bridle both for the 
remoter parts of l^gypt, and for the parts inhabited by the more 
noble Macedonians. Where then are those people whom you are to 
have for your auxiliaries? Must they come from the parts of the 
world that are uninhabited? for all that are in the habitable earth 
are under the Romans.—Unless any of you extend his hopes as far 
as beyond the Euphrates, and suppose that those of your own nation 
that dwell in Adiabene will come to your assistance, but certainly 
these will not embarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if 
they should follow such ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so 
to do : for it is their concern to maintain the truce that is between 
them and the Romans, and they will be supposed to break the cov¬ 
enant between them, if any under their government march against 
the Romans. What remains, therefore, is this, that you have re¬ 
course to divine assistance; but this is already on the side of the 
Romans ; for it is impossible that so vast an empire should be settled 
without God’s providence. Reflect upon it, how impossible it is for 
your zealous observations of your religious customs to be here pre¬ 
served, which are hard to be observed, even when you fight with 
those whom you are able to conquer ; and how can you then most of 
all hope for God’s assistance, when, by being forced to transgress his 
law, you will make him turn his face from you? and if you do ob¬ 
serve the custom of the Sabbath-days, and will not be prevailed on 
to do any thing thereon, you will easily be taken, as were your fore¬ 
fathers by Pompey, who was the busiest in his siege on those days on 
which the besieged rested : but if in time of war you transgress the 
law of your country, I cannot tell on whose account you will after¬ 
ward go to war ; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing 
against any of your forefathers; and how will you call on God to 
assist you, when you are voluntarily transgressing against his relig¬ 
ion? Now, all men that go to war, do it either as depending on 
divine or human assistance; but since your going to war will cut off 
both those assistances, those that are for going to war choose evident 


SUMMARY. 


355 


destruction. What hinders you from slaying your children and wives 
with your own hands, and burning this most excellent native city of 
yours? for by this mad prank you will, however, escape the reproach 
of being beaten ; but it were best, O my friends, it were best, while 
the vessel is still in the haven, to foresee the impending storm, and 
not to set sail out of the port into the middle of the hurricanes ; for 
we justly pity those who fall into great misfortunes without foresee¬ 
ing them; but for him who rushes into manifest ruin, he gains re¬ 
proaches instead of commiseration. But certainly no one can imagine 
that you can enter into a war as by agreement, or that when the Ro¬ 
mans have got you under their power, they will use you with moder¬ 
ation, or will not rather, for an example to other nations, burn your 
•holy city, and utterly destroy your whole nation; for those of you 
who will survive the war, will not be able to find a place whither to 
flee, since all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are 
afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed, the danger concerns 
not those Jews that' dwell here only, but those of them that dwell 
in other cities also ; for there is no people upon the habitable earth 
which has not some portion of you among them, whom your enemies 
will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also ; and so 
every city which hath Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for the 
sake only of a few men, and they who slay them will be pardoned ; 
but if that slaughter be not made by them, consider how wicked a 
thing it is to take arms against those that are so kind to you. Have 
pity, therefore, if not on your children and wives, yet upon this your 
metropolis, and its sacred walls ; spare the temple, and preserve the 
holy house, with its holy furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans 
get you under their power, they will no longer abstain from them, 
when their former abstinence shall have been so ungratefully re¬ 
quited. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of 
God, and this conntry common to us all, that I have not kept back 
any thing for your preservation ; and if you will follow that advice 
which you ought to do, you will have that peace which will be com¬ 
mon to you and to me; but if you indulge your passions, you will 
run those hazards which I shall be free from.” 

This speech of Agrippa’s in behall of the Jews as 
well as in the interests of Rome, did not effect its 
purpose however. 

Florus, the procurator, had so enraged them that. 


356 


SUMMARY. 


while they acknowledged Caesar’s right to rule,, 
they could not bear the insolence and oppression of 
this man any more than they did that of Pilate or 
any other procurator. 

The -proczirator was generally the man against 
whom they set themselves, so far as uprisings 
against Caesar were concerned. His acts were 
seized upon on every opportunity of this sort, until at 
last a general conflict was inaugurated to end only 
with the end of the Jewish state. 

We have indicated very forcibly too, just here, the 
truth of what is so often alluded to by Pilate, both in 
his Reports and in the Acts of Pilate viz., that, “of' 
all the cities under Roman rule none was so difficult 
to be kept at peace as was Jerusalem,” and that the 
Jews were and had been “always rebellious ” not 
only against their present rulers, but of old, “against 
God himself.”- 

It has been our purpose in giving these long ex¬ 
tracts to show how intimate was the knowledge of 
Rome with all Jewish affairs and what almost daily 
communication passed between Jerusalem and Rome 
during these times, and of what great consideration 
especially the Jewish province was held in by her 
Roman masters. 

It has been too generally believed and much too 
frequently taught, that at this time, during the life¬ 
time of Jesus, and for long before and long after 
that, the little province of Judea and indeed that all 
Palestine amounted to nothing in the eyes of Rome, 
was not deserving of notice, and amounted to but lit¬ 
tle more than a far off' and thinly populated desert. 



SUMMARY. 


357 


That criticism which has done its utmost to belit¬ 
tle every thing Jewish, and to reduce to the lowest 
ebb all the historical surroundings of Jesus of Naz¬ 
areth, has left a very false impress on the mind of 
many as to every thing with which his life was con¬ 
nected. 

It is for this reason mainly that we have thought 
best to introduce herein the persons so prominently 
and intimately connected with the actual trial of Je¬ 
sus and to give somewhat of their character, as also 
those other persons of a later time, that have given 
prominence to certain Records left concerning that 
trial; and this is our only excuse for what might 
seem to the reader the bringing in of superfluous 
matter. 

Every one of them named in this volume from 
Tiberius the emperor, to Tischendorf the literary 
discoveror, bears a necessary part to the history that 
circles around the cross on which Jesus hung as a 
Jewish peasant teacher, but who was taken down 
dead to arise the Universal Impulse of Good, and 
who has made immortal in history and in memory 
eyery thing against which he touched. 

No more interesting study has ever been underta¬ 
ken than that of the life of Jesus, and the rise and 
early progress of that system of religion founded 
upon his death and alleged resurrection. 

No subject has employed so much of the ablest 
intellect of the world, none that has so steadily 
grown under the opposition of skilled and powerful 
opponents, and, none which to-day makes so plau¬ 
sible a prophecy of dominating finally the souls 


358 


SUMMARY. 


of humanity, in individual, social and religious life. 

It is fast becoming the State religion” of hu¬ 
manity the world over. 

That it sits at the helm of the highest empires, the 
greatest kingdoms and the proudest Republics of to¬ 
day cannot be denied. It was not altogether reared 
in obscurity, in weakness, and among the poor and 
ignorant as some have taught. 

Its founder, Jesus, walked not altogether among 
the lazzaroni of Palestine. His companions and as¬ 
sociates, some of His confidential ones and His en¬ 
tertainers had houses and homes, and orchards and 
vineyards, and palaces and parks. 

Genius and goodness, intelligence and purity may 
have often in this world *‘no where to lay its head"’ 
in individual or personal ownership ; but greatness 
anywhere, especially in the head and in the heart, 
makes the man who owns it a welcome guest not 
only with Martha and Lazarus, but with Zacheus 
and the immaculate and uplifted pharisee. 

Moral greatness, like the Sun, gilds alike hovel 
and palace, it draws toward itself the dew drop and 
the flower it bends, it makes the whole world glad¬ 
der for its coming. Jesus was welcome at the Preto- 
rium of Pilate, in the home of rich Zacheus, or in 
the fisherman’s tent. 

He taught even in the Temple, or by the wayside, 
and the sea shore alike. 

We all wonder why the priests killed him, and 
how the poor wept him. 

And we wonder most, how He got so soon a start 
in the world—never to stop. 


SUMMARY. 


359 


He must have had some great friends like the rich 
Joseph of Arimathea, and the ruler Nicodemus and 
the haughty Magdalene, that could bring enough 
spices about his grave, 2000 years ago, to make the 
perfume there so sweet and lasting, even until this 
hour . 

There, the secret lies. Strong souls were those 
that He had conquered. 

Hearts of oak and more than oak, fortress like, 
and manned by legions of bad angels, had they 
been, to become the strong captives and devoted 
servants of Christ. 

Seven archangels of Death sang the enchant¬ 
ments of passion in the garlanded gateways leading 
to the throne of insatiate love in that heart of the 
woman of Magdala. Voluptuous in that silken Al¬ 
hambra of Astarte, she sat in that golden prison of 
enticement whose gate was but “the way to hell, 
going down to the chambers of death.” 

Kings and legates were visitors there, revelling 
in shame’s glory, till the Sun of Righteousness 
shone upon that heart of Magdalen, and cleared the 
temple of her soul by vanquishing those seven si¬ 
rens of death. 

We need not blush should any words paint the 
battle scene on Mary’s heart when the wand of Je¬ 
sus’ word cut away the gilded folds of passion’s sin, 
and. naked in the sunlight of conscience, bade the 
evil spirits depart, never to return. 

Because she had the strength to see these go away 
and shed no tear at their departing, therefore ’twas 
she received sight first to see the two angels of 


360 


SUMMARY. 


the Resurrection sitting on the throne of Death 
where He had lain, who conquered death and hell 
and the grave. 

Such was the heroine who became the first herald 
of the resurrection. 

Such souls were Peter, James and John and Paul, - 
the immortal captains on the field of a moral con¬ 
flict that requires the best strength of men. 

The world has had its Xerxes and its Xenophons, 
its Alexanders and its Napoleons, but these were 
men of muscle only, of physical powers, and intellec¬ 
tual might. The great moral world needed yet 
greater captains still. Jesus heads that list. 

He came when the Roman eagles perched upon 
the pinnacles of power the wide world over, in every 
capital; when hate and war and butchery had done 
their best to conquer the hearts of men, and to press 
humanity into one great empire. 

He came to assail and subdue the central citadel 
of humanity, which, left untaken, leaves no hope of 
peace. That citadel was the heart of man, the hu¬ 
man will, next highest power to God. 

The statesmanship of this world will yet, if it 
have not already done, do Him the honor of that 
mighty conception which He began in practice, and 
that will yet be fulfilled in universal peace among 
all nations, by subduing this central citadel of the 
powers of this world. 

The inventions of peace shall become outwardly 
so terrible yet. that the butchery of battles shall be 
unknown. 


SUMMARY. 


361 


The Peace Congress international shall arbitrate 
all disputes. 

Love shall reign—peace shall shine unclouded on 
land and sea, and the angels’ word, “good will 
among men,” the key note of universal song—then 
shall be realized that poem of Isaiah, singing of 
Messiah: 

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb , and the 
leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the 
young lion and the failing together; and a little* child 
shall lead them. 

And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones 
shall lie down together; and the lion shall cat straw like 
the ox. 

A nd the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp 
and the weatied child shall put his hand on the cock¬ 
atrice's den. 

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all His holy moun¬ 
tain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord , as the waters cover the Sea."—Isaiah X.--6, 
7 > S, 9- 


*And Jesus called a little child unto him; and set him in the midst 
of them, 

And said. Verily I say unto you. Except you be converted, and be¬ 
come as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. 

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the 
same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 

Take heed that ye despise not one of these Itttle ones; for I say 
unto you. That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of 
tny Father which is in heaven. — Matt. XVIIT. 2. 3. 4. 10. 




INDEX 


OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. 


A 

Aaron, the first high priest of the 
Jews, 264. 

Abraham, his Covenant of Faith 
narrowed by the Mosaic Cove¬ 
nant, 16; Jesus Christ repre¬ 
sented the Abrahamic, Annas 
and Caiaphas the Mosaic Cove¬ 
nant, 279. 

Achimas, one of the high priests 
who officiated in the first Tem¬ 
ple, 265. 

Acts of Pilate, consist of three 
forms. First Greek Form, 37; 
Second Greek Form, 77; Latin 
Form, 106; oldest manuscripts 
of, discovered by Tischenaorf, 
139; original, according to Raw- 
linson, deposited in the Roman 
Archives, and copies of, prob¬ 
ably gotten out and distributed 
among early Christians by those 
who were members of Caesar’s 
household, 37; first mentioned 
by Justin Martyr, 135; Justin’s 
statements concerning, 283; 
Tertullian’s statements, 286; 
Eusebius’ account of, 288; Tis- 
chendorPs comments on, 135- 
141; Lardner’s remarks on, 293; 
general contents of, 33-36. 

Acts, False, gotten up about the 
year a. d. 311, 289. 

Acts of the City, Acts of the Sen¬ 
ate, Acts of Governors, Acts of 
Alexandria, etc., described by j 


Lardner, 297, 298. 

Aeneas xii. 

Agathangelus aids Tischendorf, 
333 - 

Agrippa, King, his eloquent 
speech to the Jews, dissuading 
war, 348. 

Akiba s story of his interview 
with Mary about the birth of Je¬ 
sus 44. 

Alexander a high-priest, 266. 

Alexander, the Great, 350. 

Aljoneus a high-priest, 267. 

Ananelus, the third priest unlaw¬ 
fully appointed by the civil 
power, 266. 268. 

Ananias, son of Nebedeus, high 
priest, 267. 

Ananus, son of Annas, his speech 
to the Jews, 273. 

Annas, the son of Seth, appointed 
high priest, A. D. 7, by Cyreni- 
us, 271; deposed by Valerius 
Gratus, 270, had five sons and 
a son-in-law to succeed him in 
the priestly office 271; at the 
trial of Peter and John for 
preaching Jesus, acting as high 
priest 272; Jesus taken before 
him first, 23. 

Antonia, daughter of Mark Anto¬ 
ny and Octavia the Sister of 
Augustus, probably a worship¬ 
per of God, a monotheist, hon¬ 
ored by Tiberius, 215. 

Antoninus Pius, emperor to whom 
Justin made his Apology, 283. 



-364 


INDEX. 


Antony, Mark, his decree concern¬ 
ing the Jews 344, 345: his letter 
to the high-priest, Hyrcanus 
about the assassination of Caesar 

171. 

Apology Justin Martyr’s 283; 
Tertullian’s, 286. 

Arnold, Sir Edwin, 1, 18, 28. 

Aristobulus, high-priest, 266. 

Asamoneans or Maccabees inaug¬ 
urate the “profane” Jewish 
Monarchy, 268. 

Augustus, Caesar, his decrees con¬ 
cerning the Jews, 345. 

Axioramus a high priest of the 
first or Solomon’s Temple, 265. 

Azarias a high priest of the first 
Temple, 265. 

Azarias, son of Elcias, a priest of 
the first Temple, 266. 

B 

Banquet given Jesus at the house 
of Simon the leper by Martha 
and Mary, six days before the 
crucifixion, 20; prepared by Pi¬ 
late for Herod and his prefects, 
and the high priests, 151. 

Babylon, 6. 225. 

Bar Abbas, the robber, his release 
demanded by the Jews instead 
of that of Jesus, 55. 

Bartimeus,jhealed of blindness, 20. 

Basle, Gospels of, 329. 

Bedouins, 331. 

Beelzebub, 38. 

Bethlehem the birthplace of Je¬ 
sus, massacre of infants at, 11(). 

Betrothal of Joseph and Mary, 
no. 

Bible, Sinai, description of, 335; 
discovery of by Tischendorf, 
331; formally presented to the 
Czar at St. Petersburgh and 
placed in the Imperial library, 
334; fac-simile copies of in the 
United States 335. 

Breslau, University of, 329. 


C 

Caesar, Augustus, his decrees con¬ 
cerning the Jews; inscribed on 
a pillar in a temple dedicated to 
him at Ancyra 345, his favora¬ 
ble sentiment toward; uses the 
words “Almighty God,” and 
“Sabbath day” 345. 

Caesar, £laudius, his edict and 
letter concerning the Jews 345, 
346, King Agrippa very dear 
to; his edicts to the Jews en¬ 
graved on tables 346. 

Caesar, Julius, his edicts in favor 
of the Jewish people, laid up 
among the public records, writ¬ 
ten on a table of brass in Latin 
and Greek, 342; he uses in them 
“Sabbatical Year” explains its 
meaning 344. 

Caesar, Tiberius, Sketch of, 188; 
his childhood, 190; as a soldier, 
190; ascends the throne, 191; 
his general character, as drawn 
from original sources, quoted 
at length, 192-248; encourages 
freedom of speech, 193; his 
moral earnestness, 195-200; fru¬ 
gality and benevolence, 201; 
his abhorrence of brutalizing 
games, 204; dislike of titles, 
205; a humane general, 206; his 
love of peace, 207; his justice, 
209; his affectionateness, 211; 
his repugnance for divine hon¬ 
ors toward mortals, 212; his 
monotheistic leanings;his retire¬ 
ment to Capriae with men of 
culture and business capacity, 
213; his age at this time, 213; 
his industrious habits at Cap- 
rioe; his memoirs, 216; attention 
to political and financial inter¬ 
ests of the community while at 
Caprise; his rules of social mor¬ 
ality carried out strictly while 
there, 217; the story of his de¬ 
bauchery founded on a joke, 



INDEX. 


365 


218; his connection with the 
death of Sejanus, 222-229; Se- 
janus murdered by a patrician 
Senate in opposition to Tiber¬ 
ius, 227-229; Tiberius never 
overstepped his authority, 232; 
his troubles at themal-adminis- 
tration of the government by 
the Senate, 234, 235; his mis¬ 
representation and defamation 
by Tacitus, 237-241. 

Caesarea, Phillippi, Jesus visits on 
his last journey, 19; his statue 
erected there 155. 

Caiaphas, Joseph, son-in-law of 
Annas, and high priest, appoin¬ 
ted by Valerius Gratus about 
A. D. 25, acting high priest at 
the trial of Jesus, and at the 
trial of Peter and John, 270; his 
opinion as to the necessity of 
Jesus’ death, 271. 

Cairo, 331. 

Caligula, 298. 

Calvary, 2. 

Capernaum, accustomed home of 
Jesus, 19. 

Capreae, the island purchased by 
Augustus as a country residence 
212; improved by Tiberius, 213 
his retirement thither with his 
cultured friends, 214, 215. 

Cataline, 156. 

Constantine, 325. 

Codex Vaticanus 331. 

Creator, 163. 

Cross, the form of, 1. 

Crucifixion, an ancient Oriental 
mode of inflicting the death 
penalty used among the Greeks 
and Romans, peculiar atrocity 
of, 1; principal idea of, a slow 
death, 2. 

Crusade, 2. 

Cuspius Fadus, procurator under 
Claudius, 347. 

Cyrenius, prefect of Syria, 271. 

Cyrus, the Persian king, 265. 

Czar, Alexander ii. of Russia, 334. 


D 

Dagrippus, 79. 

David, first captor of the fortress 
of Mount Zion, 3. his descrip¬ 
tion of. 4; ancestor of Jesus, 9. 

Death, how caused by crucifixion, 
1, 2. 

Death Warrant of Jesus, 148. 

Death of Julius Caesar, darkness 
at 172. 

Decrees of Roman Emperors con¬ 
cerning the Jews, 342, 343, 
344 , 345 , 346 . 

Delatores, a class of Roman law¬ 
yers, 233. 

Denis, Saint, his description of 
the beauty of Mary, 155. 

Denon the French archeologist, 
148, 

Departure of Jesus from Caper¬ 
naum on his last journey, 19. 

Dio Cassius, 214, 237, 241. 

Dionysius, the Areopagite, excla¬ 
mation at the phenomena at¬ 
tending the crucifixion, 173. 

Doctrine of Jesus, 13, 14. 

Domitian, 247. 

Drusus, 345. 

Dysmas or Dismas, one of the 
robbers crucified with Jesus, 59, 
legend of his having met Jesus 
in infancy in Egypt, Ibid. 

E 

Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius, 
326. 

Egias, a rabbi, 132. 

Egypt, flight of Joseph and 
Mary into, 17. 

Elcias a high priest of the first 
Temple, 266. 

Eliazar, son of Ananus, high 
priest, 267. 

Elias, 66. 

Elisseus 66. 

Epiphanius, description of per¬ 
sonal appearance of Mary, 155. 




366 


INDEX. 


Eucharist instituted, 22; 

Eusebius, father of Church histo¬ 
ry, life of, 323, defends Arius, 
325; prepares the first draft of 
the Creed; resists the expres¬ 
sion “of the same substance” of 
the Father, 325; bishop of the 
See of Caesarea, 324; attends the 
emperor at the council of Nicea; 
325; identifies himself after the 
Council with the Arian rather 
than the Athanasian party, 325; 
Dorner’s remark on, 326. Eu¬ 
sebius charged by Dr. Newman 
in his history of the Arians, as 
openly siding with them, 324; 
his testimony concerning the 
Acts of Pilate, 288. 

Excavations in modern times at 
Caprioe, 212. 

Excuse of the high priest to Pi¬ 
late for not attending his ban¬ 
quet, 151. 

Execution, the power of, taken 
from the Jews, 263. 

F 

Fabus, father of Ismael the high 
priest, 267. 

False Acts of Pilate forged during 
the reign of Maximin, 289. 

Farrar, Canon, 87. 

Father of his country, Tiberius 
refuses to be called, 205. 

Fathers, early Christian, on Acts 
of Pilate, 283, 292. 

Flaccus, one of the friends of Ti¬ 
berius in his retirement, 214. 

Flight into Egypt, 45. 

Florus a Roman procurator, 3.^6. 

Fornication, charge of, by the 
Jews against Mary, 42, 43. 

G 

Gabbatha, 257. 

Galilee, 165. 

Gallio, 246. 


Gallus, 246, 351, 352; 

Gauls, 169. 

Germanicus, 211, 219, 245. 

Gistas, one of the robbers cruci¬ 
fied with Jesus, 92. 

Gethsemane, xiv. 

God Almighty, term used by Au¬ 
gustus Caesar, 345. 

Gods, used for God or the divine 
influence, 96. 

Gospels, generally accepted as the 
only biography of Jesus, vi. 

Gratus, Valerius, fifth Roman 
procurator,252; dismisses Annas 
from the priestly office, 270. 

Greeks used the cross as an instru¬ 
ment of death, 1. 

Grotius, 309. 

H 

Health of Caesar, by the, a Ro¬ 
man form of oath, 47, 109. 

Heraclea, Bishop of, declares that 
Eusebius apostatized, 324. 

Herod, xiii; arrays Jesus in a white 
robe and sends him back to Pi¬ 
late 25; enquires Pilate’s opin¬ 
ion of Jesus, 165. 

Herod, the Great, 268. 

High priests, a list of those of the 
first temple, 265, 266; those 
from Herod to the destruction 
of the temple, 267. Aaron the 
first, Phanas the last, eighty- 
three in all; thirteen in the wil¬ 
derness under Moses, held office 
for life under first constitution, 
proceeded by direct succession 
264. 

Holland, libraries of, visited by 
Tischendorf, 329, those of Eng¬ 
land, France and the Nether¬ 
lands, 330. 

Homer, xii. 

Huidekoper, Prof, F., 191, 156 
305; his estimate of Pilate’s 
character, 210, 211; his exhaus¬ 
tive note on Tiberius, 188-248. 



INDEX. 


367 


Hyrcanus, a high priest, 266, 192, 
248. 

I 

Imperator, commander, except by 
soldiers Tiberius would not be 
addressed by, 205. 

Ink, color of, in the Sinai Bible, 

335 - 

Interview of Pilate with Jesus, 
before the trial, 161, 165. 

Ireneus, 316. 

Isaac, 101. 

Isaiah, 361. 

Island of Capriae or Capri, its 
name founds the story of Tibe¬ 
rius’ debauchery, 218. 

Ismael, a high priest, 267. 

Ismael, son of Fabi, a high priest, 
267. 

Italian researches of Tischendorf, 
329 - 

Issus, a high priest, of the first 
temple, 265. 

J 

Jacimus, a high priest of the first 
Temple, 265. 

Jesus Crucified—1-32; came when 
Jerusalem was under the yoke 
of Rome, 3; learns the sad his¬ 
tory of his people in boyhood, 
3, 4; his Jewish love of country, 
6-7; descended of a kingly line, 
9; sprung from Abraham and 
David, 9; the representative of 
the Abrahamic faith, 16; did 
not attempt a mere temporal 
re-establishment of David’s 
throne, 10; opposed to the 
whole Jewish people in his idea 
of reformation, 11; the dark 
picture that confronted him for 
three years, 12; his Sermon on 
the Mount 14; strong souls alone 
can receive it, 15; a legend of his 
sojourn in Egypt—the shadow 


of the cross, 17; the last days of 
Jesus, 19-32; his departure from 
Capernaum, his accustomed 
home, 19; comes to Caesarea 
Philippi, 19; Peter’s answer, 19; 
Jesus leaves Ephraim for the 
passover at Jerusalem, 20 and a 
banquet in the house of Simon 
the leper, by Martha and Mary 
20; on Palm Sunday, four days 
before the crucifixion, makes 
His triumphant entry into Je¬ 
rusalem, 2of on the evening of 
that day retires outside the walls 
in the direction of Bethany, 21; 
on Monday goes again into Je¬ 
rusalem, enters the Temple and 
meets the Scribes and Rabbi’s, 
21: on Tuesday is met by the 
Herodians and Pharisees with 
their plot to entrap Him, and 
defeats them, delivers His terri¬ 
ble denunciation against the 
Sanhedrists, 21, and leaves the 
Temple forever, 22; Tuesday 
night and Wednesday spent at 
Bethany, 22; Thursday evening 
goes to Jerusalem to keep the 
Paschal feast and institutes the 
Eucharist, 22; on the slope of 
Olivet, He and His deciples are 
surrounded by the Levites and 
Temple guard, and He is taken 
before the high-priest, Annas 23; 
is questioned and struck on the 
mouth for refusing to plead and 
is sent to Caiaphas, 23; confes¬ 
ses to Caiaphas that He is the 
Son of God, and Messiah, 23; 
the next morning, Friday, He 
is arraigned before Pilate, 
having been formally con¬ 
demned to death by the San¬ 
hedrin, 24; Pilate sends Him 
to Herod, 25; Pilate proposes 
to release Jesus, but the Jews 
demand Bar Abbas, 26; the last 
judicial act over, Jesus laden 
with the cross, starts for Gol- 




368 


INDEX. 


gotha, 26; He is stripped of his 
garments and girt with a linen 
cloth, 27, 58; two robbers, by 
name Dysmas and Gestas cru¬ 
cified with Him 27; His dis¬ 
ciples left in despair, 28; Re¬ 
nan’s tribute to Jesus, 30; Je- 

* sus then and now, 31, 32. 

Jesus, a high priest, 266. 

Jesus, son of Fabus, a high priest 
267. 

Jesus, son of Sie, a high priest 
267. 

Jesus, son of Damneus, a high 
priest, 267. 

Jesus, son of Gamaliel, a high 
priest, 267. 

Jericho, Jesus comes to, on his last 
journey, 20. 

Joazar, a high priest, 157. 

John’s Gospel harmonized by Acts 
of Pilate, 91. 

John, the Baptist, 338. 

Joram, a high priest of the first 
Temple, 265. 

Joseph, of Arimatliea. begs the 
body of Jesus for burial, 60, 94, 
120, 173, 174; the Jews throw 
him into prison, from which he 
is delivered, 60, 98, 122; the 
Jews informed of his escape, 63, 
100, 123; they hear of his being 
at Arimathea, send a lett ;r to 
him requesting that he come to 
them, 67, 103, 127 ; Joseph re¬ 
ceives the messengers bearing 
the letter and returns with them 
to the Council, and relates how 
he escaped, 68, 69, 70, 104. 

Josedek, last of the high priests 
of the first temple, 266. 

Joseph, husband of Mary the 
Mother of Jesus, 17, no. 

Joseph, son of Jacob, ruler in 
Egypt, 17. 

Joseph Cabi, son of Simon, high 
priest, 267. 

Josephus quoted, 264, 276, 45, 56, 
342 . 


Jotham, a high priest of the first 
temple, 265. 

Judas, a high priest, 266. 

Juelus, a high priest of the first 
temple, 265. 

L 

Lardner, 293. 

Law, Moral, 279. 

Law, Jewish concerning espousal, 
45; concerning witnesses, 53. 

Lazarus, 7; his ressurrection from 
the dead, 53. 

Legends, German, about Pilate’s 
birth, 250; of the robber Dys¬ 
mas, 59; of the shadow of the 
Cross, 17; of Pilate’s death, 260. 

Libraries visited by Tischendorf 
3 2 9 > 330 - 

List of high-priests who served in 
the first Temple of Solomon, 
265, 266, those from Herod to 
the destruction of thfe Temple 
by Titus, 267. 

Longinus, the soldier who speared 
the side of Jesus, 74. 

M 

Magdala, Jesus sails to; on his. 
last journey, 19. 

Magician, Jesus accused of being 
by the Jews, 78. 

Manlius, Pilate’s secretary, 156. 

Martha and Mary sisters of Laza¬ 
rus, 7; give Jesus a banquet, 20. 

Mark Antony, 171. 

Mary, the mother of Jesus, her 
personal appearance as given by 
Epiphanius, 155; St Denis re¬ 
marks on, 155; her character 
aspersed by the Jews, 43, 44, 
flees to Egypt, 45; her lamenta¬ 
tion on being informed by John 
of her son’s condition, 89, her 
lament at the cross. 90; she is 
driven from the cross by the 
Jews; 91; is spoken to by Jesus 






INDEX. 


369 


from the cross, 90; 

Martin Luther, 170. 

Mary Magdalene, her outcry at 
the crucifixion of Jesus, 96; 
threatens to go to Rome alone 
and plead before Caesar, 97, 
helps to embalm and bury Je¬ 
sus, 359; one of the strong souls 
that followed Him to death and 
became the first witness of the 
Resurrection, 97. 360, enter¬ 
tains Pilate and his wife at her 
home three years after the cru¬ 
cifixion; 97 

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John 
harmonized by Acts of Pilate, 
91. 

Maximin, Roman Emperor, x. 

Merivale,Roman Hist, quoted 237. 

Messiah, 170. 

Mother of God, probable explan¬ 
ation of, 95, 96. 

Mount Mambre, 133. 

Mount of Olives. 22, 105. 

Mount Zion, 3, 4, 171. 

Murder of the children born at 
Bethlehem, by Herod, 57. 

N 

Nazarene, the name often applied 
to Jesus by Pilate, 154, 157, 
161, 163, 165, 166, 168, 170, 
173 - 

Nerva, the great jurist one of Ti¬ 
berius’ friends in his retirement 
at Capriae, 214; 

Nazarenes, 308. 

Nerias, a high-priest of the first 
Temple, 265. 

Nicodemus, relates to Pilate what 
he had said to the Jews, dissu¬ 
ading them from their rash acts 
toward Jesus, 51, 83; his speech 
before the Jewish Council, 65 
126; he is summoned by Pilate 
for advice, 54, 85; the Jews 
greatly enraged at Nicodemus., 
gnash their teeth against him, 


52; the priests and Levites as¬ 
semble at his house to leceive 
Joseph of Arithmathea on his 
return; gives a feast and calls 
Annas and Caiaphas and the el¬ 
ders, 68. 

O 

Odeas, a high-priest of the first 
Temple, 265. 

Olives, Mount of, Jesus arrested 
on, 23. 

Onias, a high-priest, 266. 

Oracle by Urim ended, 268. 

Orosius, testimony of, 292; writ¬ 
ten in the 5th century, 311. 

P 

Palm Sunday, the day of Jesus’ 
triumphant entry of Jerusalem 
four days before the crucifixion 
20. 

Panonia, seditions of, 171. 

Paradise, 59. 

Parthian war, 160. 

Personal appearance of Jesus, 154 
of Mary, 155. 

Peter’s great confession. 19. 

Phideas, a priest of the first Tem- 
265. 

Phannias, the son of Samuel, the 
last high priest, 267. 

Philo; 305. 

Phinees, a priest, 63. 

Pilate, sketch of, 249; nothing 
positively known of his early 
history, possibly a descendant 
of Telesinus, the great Samnite 
general, 249; German legend 
concerning, 250; appointed pro¬ 
curator of Judea A. D. 25-26, 
252, removes the headquarters 
of the army from Caesarea to 
Jerusalem, 252; builds an aque¬ 
duct out of the moneys of the 
Temple treasury, 166, 167; his 
difficulties with the Jews about 






370 


INDEX. 


the same, 167; his arraignment 
of Jesus, 38, 39; calls Jesus into 
the Pretorium and questions him 
privately, 49; declares to the 
Jews that he finds no fault in 
Jesus, 49, 50; proposes to the 
Jews that they try Jesus and 
punish him according to their 
laws, 50; washes his hands in 
token of innocence of the mur¬ 
der of Jesus, and pronounces 
sentence that he be scourged 
and crucified, 57; orders the 
charge against Jesus to be in¬ 
scribed in Latin, Greek and 
Hebrew, 58; receives the report 
of the centurion of the strange 
phenomena at the crucifixion, 
59, 60; his report to Tiberius 
concerning the Crucifixion, 165- 
174; his opinion of Jesus to 
Herod, 165; his description of 
the personal appearance of Jes¬ 
us, 154, 155; his recall to Rome 
three years after the crucifixion 
—legends concerning his death, 
460. 

Political sentiments of Pilate, Ti¬ 
berius and Jesus probably the 
same, 156, 157, and opposed to 
the Aristocracy of the Jews and 
the patricianism of Rome, ibid. 

Pompey, his activity in the siege 
of Jerusalem on the Sabbath 
day, 354. 

Pontus, 157. 

Porter, Hon. A. G., United States 
Minister to Italy, 191. 

Portico, 150. 

Polycarp, made to swear by the 
health of Ccesar, 47. 

Pretorium, 171, Pilates interview 
with Jesus in, 161, offered as an 
asylum to Jesus, 164. 

Prince of Peace, 3. 

Prince of the earth, Pilate called 
by Jesus, 163. 

Procula, wife of Pilate, 257; her 
dream, 169. 


Procurator, definition of, 261. 

Proselyte defined to Pilate by the 
Jews, 46. 

Q 

Quint ius Cornelius, the centurian 
who led Jesus to crucifixion, 
149. 

R 

Rabbis, witnesses and signers of 
the death-warrant of Jesus, 149. 

Rawlinson, George.X, his remarks 
on the Acts of Pilate, 37. 

Reason the hand-maid of Religion 
VIII. 

Rebellion of Corah against the 
authority of Moses, 55. 

Renan, his splendid words about 
Jesus, 30. 

Rhodes, Tiberius kindness of heart 
shown in his life at, 203, 204. 

Right side of Jesus speared, 93. 

Roman standards, description of 
40,41. 

Rome governs Jerusalem from the 
days of Pompey 350; her just 
rule and considerate treatment 
of the Jewish people 342, 343 
344 , 349 , 350 . 

Romulus and Remus, 163, 164. 

Rorobable, one of the signers of 
the death warrant of Jesus, 149 

Russia, X, 31, 330. 

S 

Sallumus, a high priest of the first 
Temple, 265. 

Samaritan, 7. 

Sanhedrin, described, its powers, 
263; the high priest president 
of, ibid. 

Schliemann, xii. 

Sejanus, murdered by a mob insti¬ 
gated by the Senate 223, 224, 

Senate, Roman, was patrician. 





INDEX. 


371 


and unfriendly to Tiberius, 219 
236; their horrible deeds in the 
case of Sejanus, 224. 

Seneca affirms that the Senate 
murdered Sejanus, 228. 

Seraiah, a high priest of the first 
Temple, 266. 

Seville, house of Pilate at, 161. 

Shakespeare, xi. 

Sharon, Rose of, 163. 

Simon, a high priest, 266. 

Simon, son of Boethus, a high 
priest, 267. 

Simon, son of Camithus, a high 
priest, 267. 

Socrates, his character, teaching 
and death, 162. 

Solomon, his reign the Golden 
Age of the Jews, 4; God’s sec¬ 
ond appearance to, at Gibeon 6. 

Sozomen, (historian borncirc:4C»o 
A. D. at Gaza,) 155; relates 
the destruction of the statue 
erected to Jesus, ibid. 

Spanish, 161. 

Speech of Corah against Moses, 
55; of Annaus to the Jews, 273 
of King Agrippa, 348. 

S. P. Q. R., the initials on the 
Roman standards explained, 40, 
41- 

Statue of Tiberius Caesar, 237; of 
Jesus at Caesarea Philippi, des¬ 
troyed by command of the em¬ 
peror Julian, 155. 

Strabo, the Greek historian’s 
account of Moses and his suc¬ 
cessors, 268, 269. 

Sudeas, a hign priest of the first 
Temple, 265. 

Suetonius, a political enemy of 
Tiberius, 189; misrepresents 
him, 218, 221. 

T 

Tacitus, falsifies History, 237. 

Talmud asperses the character of 
Mary, 43. 


Temple of Solomon burned by 
Nebuchadnezzar, 265. 

Tertullian, testimony of, concern¬ 
ing Acts of Pilate, 286. 

Tiber, wolf of, 163. 

Tiberius Caesar, sketch of, 188. 

Tischendorf’s comments on Acts 
of Pilate, 135—141; sketch of 
his life and labors, 228—336. 

Trojan War XII. 

Troy, XII; 

Truth, Pilates enquiry, what is, 49 

Trypho, 317. 

Tubingen School of Critics ,XI. 

Tyre, 19. 

U 

University of Breslau bestows title 
on Tischendorf, 329. 

Urias, a high-priest of the first 
Temple, 265. 

Urim, oracle of, ended on the 
death of Hyrcanus. B. C. 106, 
268. 

V 

Valerius Gratus, 252. 

Vatican at Rome, Statue of Ti¬ 
berius in, 191. 

Veronica, woman of, healed, 116. 

Victoria, 18 

Vienna Allobrogum, 260. 

Villas built by Tiberius at Cap- 
reae, 213. 

Virgil, XII. 

W 

Walsh. Dr. 59. 

Washington D, C. 335. 

White robe put on Jesus by 
Herod, 87. 

Witnesses, women not admitted 
as, 53. 

Women with Mary and John 
driven from the cross, 91. 

Works of Eusebius, 326; of Jus- 



372 INDEX. 


tin Martyr, 317, of Tertullian, 
321; of Tischendorf, 328, 329, 334 

X 

Xenophon, 360. 

Xerxes, 360. 

Z 


last journey, 20. 

Zadoc, one of the high-priests of 
the first Temple, 265. 

[Zephaniah, one of the priests ta¬ 
ken to Babylon, 265. 

j Zion, Mount, a place of almost 
perpetual conflict, 3; the intense 
interest always taken in her, 3. 
Zonoras, 311. 


Zacheus, entertains Jesus on his 








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